First off, I'm really sorry that happened to you. I'll just try and say the few things that crossed my mind while reading your story.
Sometimes the person being mentored wants to break free, as if the mentor were hindering his development rather than contributing to it. It seems to me that it would be similar to a father/son or mother/daughter relationship and the whole individuation process. When you think about it you can kind of see how being under somebody's protection eternally could make you feel less of a professional, think less of yourself, even if subconsciously. It would explain the extremely inelegant behavior, the belligerence, the need to seem self-assured to others at the cost of denigrating your image. Not that any of it would ever justify being such an ass like you say he has been.
I'd say just let it go. Let him go. Don't think of it as wasted time or a bad investment, you must have gained something from that process of teaching him, you must've gotten at least an important life lesson out of it.
The bottom line for me is, you're dealing with disappointment in someone you trusted fully. Just like it happens in everybody's lives, be it with a lover, a parent, a child, a teacher, a friend, a coworker. Unfortunately, we have no guarantees that the people we invest in will be able to correspond. It may have something to do with, like someone said, judging character - which is not really a sure-fire thing you can do since everybody presents themselves a certain way in order to get what they want. Or it may have to with with being dealt a bad hand, I don't know. I don't think this comment will be of any actual help, but I'm glad that you have your family to support you and hope that all of this doesn't harden you up and make you lose faith in people.
Is it normal that I feel so let down by someone I mentored?
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First off, I'm really sorry that happened to you. I'll just try and say the few things that crossed my mind while reading your story.
Sometimes the person being mentored wants to break free, as if the mentor were hindering his development rather than contributing to it. It seems to me that it would be similar to a father/son or mother/daughter relationship and the whole individuation process. When you think about it you can kind of see how being under somebody's protection eternally could make you feel less of a professional, think less of yourself, even if subconsciously. It would explain the extremely inelegant behavior, the belligerence, the need to seem self-assured to others at the cost of denigrating your image. Not that any of it would ever justify being such an ass like you say he has been.
I'd say just let it go. Let him go. Don't think of it as wasted time or a bad investment, you must have gained something from that process of teaching him, you must've gotten at least an important life lesson out of it.
The bottom line for me is, you're dealing with disappointment in someone you trusted fully. Just like it happens in everybody's lives, be it with a lover, a parent, a child, a teacher, a friend, a coworker. Unfortunately, we have no guarantees that the people we invest in will be able to correspond. It may have something to do with, like someone said, judging character - which is not really a sure-fire thing you can do since everybody presents themselves a certain way in order to get what they want. Or it may have to with with being dealt a bad hand, I don't know. I don't think this comment will be of any actual help, but I'm glad that you have your family to support you and hope that all of this doesn't harden you up and make you lose faith in people.