Wednesday, October 27, 2004

My Job

It's great to be back here. My husband and I went vacationing in London and Paris the past few weeks. It was fun and relaxing, but I sure did miss blogging. Now, on with the quote for the day.

I am a librarian. More specifically I am a children's and young adult librarian. In the past few months, the majority of our regular kids have all hit puberty. Yes, 15-20 kids (or more it seems like some days)in the throes of adolescence/puberty hit our door regularly about 3:00 every day, making for a sometimes rowdy afternoon. If you were to ask me what it's like to work with kids, I'd have to sum it up with the following quote. It comes from the book Eleven by Lauren Myracle:

"Everyone says change is what makes life an adventure. That when you change, you grow, and if you don't change, you'll shrivel up and rot like an old potato.

Well Baloney. The people who get rah-rah over change are always parents and librarians, not kids. Because when kids change, it's really pretty ugly. Three times out of four it means someone's going to get her feelings hurt, or someone's going to feel stupid when the day before she felt just fine. Three times out of four it means someone's two best friends are out of the blue going to start acting silly and giggly and full of secret looks, and nothing that someone can do will make things go back to normal."

Remember those days? I certainly do. So, next time you see a kid who's going through a hard time, remember what it was like and give them that extra encouragement they need. You may not be able to make things normal again, but at least they will know there's someone out there who understands.

This is a great reminder for me as well. Wednesday is an early release day in our town and the kids will be here in about an hour and a half.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Since taking my toddlers to the library junior room, I've rediscovered the joys of young adult fiction. I just read through the trials of Bloody Jack and the frog princess (both fantastic series) and am now heading up there preferentially. I envy you your place, surrounded by the books, but I don't envy you the company, lots and lots of OPK (other people's kids).

and I forgot when posting about the messiah above to leave my addy, in case you feel a need to respond - birdies95@hotmail.com.