The joyful scream heard around the world. Or at least, on the street where I live. Wait, no. Make that, in my head.I'm now officially a full-fledged librarian! Today is my graduation-- a day I've been anxiously waiting for these last two years. Just weeks ago I felt overwhelmed and couldn't wait for this day. Now, I have an anti-climactic sort of feeling. Like, it's not really happening.
Oh well! At this point in time, my feelings don't really matter. Now I can actually say, "I'm a librarian" whenever people ask what I do, instead of saying, "I'm a library assistant"-- which doesn't have quite the same "glamorous" flow. Ha ha.
So here's a list of all the major upheavals caused by this degree over the last two years:
- Academics do not always wait for finances to catch up. The first year, I was working 3 jobs, 60 hours total, while doing my Master's full-time. I was a bit of an emotional mess.
- I could only take one summer course because I was getting married. That's right, I got married in the middle of my degree. I don't regret it at all but I would have finished earlier if I'd taken more classes last summer vacation.
- I had to travel to Denton, TX to go to several on-site classes. Stressful! Expensive! Mostly a waste of my time! Gotta love it.
- I went to the Texas Library Association conference back in April 2007 and felt so invigorated. It really taught me that in my heart, I want to be a teen librarian.
- I've been mentored by some amazing librarians. I feel so fortunate to be in a profession with some really nurturing people. Except for the random territorial psycho, librarians are very giving of support and gentle nudging. I totally wouldn't be a librarian right now if it weren't for a good friend and former colleague.
- I officially started my jumpy project in July of 2007 but I started targeting libraries for pictures a couple of months before then. As of today, I've taken 87 trips to libraries.
- 5 countries: U.S., Chile, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy
- 11 states : Rhode Island, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Virginia, and Texas
- 1 territory: Washington DC
- 46 cities/towns total
- I'm moving back to Texas in a zigzag kind of pattern. Going through some more states at the end of this month and you can bet we're stopping at libraries along the way. Can't wait!
- I'm starting work as a teen librarian for a New York Times Librarian of the Year. She's been very gracious in fighting for me and I hope I live up to expectation. More than that, though, I hope to grow and be a total kickass librarian.
- I'm going to ALA Anaheim at the end of next month. Yeah! I'm prepping myself for some more writer love.
