Why I am becoming a librarian

There are actually two stories that I tell when I am asked why I chose librarianship for my next career. Both true, but one is more appropriate for parties. This is not that version.

Lots of people re-examined their lives on and after 9-11-01. I was still in the midst of that when my father died of a sudden heart attack on 11-28-01. And knew that I really wanted to make a change by the time I turned 40 on 5-12-02. I wanted something with meaning and purpose, something where I could help people--pretty much what I wanted when I was a teenager but lost out on some place along the way.

I think I've made the right choice. I still have nothing to do on days of great tragedy or celebration. But now I have ideas and am frustrated by the fact that I'm not in a library to implement them. This feels like progress.

Today I am thinking not only of the tragedy in London that we all woke up to yesterday morning. I am also thinking of the tragedy that my quiet suburb woke up to on Wednesday morning. One of our police officers was shot while on duty Tuesday night. He was only the second officer we have ever lost in the line--the first was in 1898.

I haven't been to the library this week, so I don't know what they have done in the physical space. I do know they haven't done anything on the website, because I checked to see if they had an answer to the question "what can I do?"

I decided to write a check to The Backstoppers. The Backstoppers was a favorite organization of Jack Buck who died shortly after my first Father's Day without a father. Jack Buck's death turned out to be a healing experience for me, being able to mourn a father figure along with an entire city. It was shortly after that when I began to take the steps that put me on my current path--a path that suits my talents and interests, that would have made my father proud, and that has meaning and purpose on wonderful days and tragic days and all the many days in between.     #

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