E-mail Exchange: MLIS
Hi, Paul.
I was thinking about what you said recently about the blood center being the first place you've worked since the library that you like as much. It made me wonder whether you'd ever considered, or would consider, pursuing an degree in library and information science (MLIS). You already know it's a milieu in which you are comfortable. That degree opens a vast array of opportunities, whether in academia, public, corporate--the last most probably not your bag, I know. Also there are many interesting specialties within the degree. Of course, you can also always still write.
Anyway, it was just something that occurred to me. Talk to you soon.
Love,
Mom
Howdy, Mom.
I appreciate your having considered these ideas, but you missed my point completely. This is fair, because I don't suppose I explained myself. I never liked working at the library because I thought the work was stimulating; the work was boring as hell. Hours of sensitizing and desensitizing musty books; hours of creeping up and down the stacks replacing recently returned books; hours of sitting deep in the stacks on a Saturday afternoon inspecting closely the spines of each individual volume to be sure every one was in its right place: these are not the components of an exciting job. I loved going to work at the library because I loved everyone I worked with, and being with them made my job seem not like a series of hideous chores, but like a productive way to hang out with my friends. That's what this jobs feels like. Everyone there works hard, but no one is stuffy or unfriendly. They have fun with each other, they treat me like one of them, and not a single person in the department has a personality that rubs me the wrong way, or rather, any of the many, many wrong ways that I have found other people's personalities have of rubbing me. This is, as you can imagine, a very rare circumstance for me, and it's unpleasant to think of having to give it up and move on again. Doing something related to my talents would be nice, but I'm not snobby about where I find employment. I'd rather work at a place where my tasks are somewhat brainless but that somehow, magically, had the foresight to staff an entire department with people that I not only can tolerate but whose company I outrightly enjoy. I've come to understand that such a situation may be actually better than doing something I like but that I have to accomplish while drowning in a seemingly bottomless ocean of assholes. Misanthropes don't very often find themselves with opportunities like I have here, and so I am holding on for dear sanity.
But I appreciate that, having misunderstood me, you wrote me this e-mail.
Love,
Paul
Hi, Paul.
That's what I thought.
Hope it works out to be permanent for you.
I'm not snobby, either. Dad asked what you'd be making there if it became permanent. I answered, "It doesn't matter. He's happy."
Love,
Mom
I was thinking about what you said recently about the blood center being the first place you've worked since the library that you like as much. It made me wonder whether you'd ever considered, or would consider, pursuing an degree in library and information science (MLIS). You already know it's a milieu in which you are comfortable. That degree opens a vast array of opportunities, whether in academia, public, corporate--the last most probably not your bag, I know. Also there are many interesting specialties within the degree. Of course, you can also always still write.
Anyway, it was just something that occurred to me. Talk to you soon.
Love,
Mom
Howdy, Mom.
I appreciate your having considered these ideas, but you missed my point completely. This is fair, because I don't suppose I explained myself. I never liked working at the library because I thought the work was stimulating; the work was boring as hell. Hours of sensitizing and desensitizing musty books; hours of creeping up and down the stacks replacing recently returned books; hours of sitting deep in the stacks on a Saturday afternoon inspecting closely the spines of each individual volume to be sure every one was in its right place: these are not the components of an exciting job. I loved going to work at the library because I loved everyone I worked with, and being with them made my job seem not like a series of hideous chores, but like a productive way to hang out with my friends. That's what this jobs feels like. Everyone there works hard, but no one is stuffy or unfriendly. They have fun with each other, they treat me like one of them, and not a single person in the department has a personality that rubs me the wrong way, or rather, any of the many, many wrong ways that I have found other people's personalities have of rubbing me. This is, as you can imagine, a very rare circumstance for me, and it's unpleasant to think of having to give it up and move on again. Doing something related to my talents would be nice, but I'm not snobby about where I find employment. I'd rather work at a place where my tasks are somewhat brainless but that somehow, magically, had the foresight to staff an entire department with people that I not only can tolerate but whose company I outrightly enjoy. I've come to understand that such a situation may be actually better than doing something I like but that I have to accomplish while drowning in a seemingly bottomless ocean of assholes. Misanthropes don't very often find themselves with opportunities like I have here, and so I am holding on for dear sanity.
But I appreciate that, having misunderstood me, you wrote me this e-mail.
Love,
Paul
Hi, Paul.
That's what I thought.
Hope it works out to be permanent for you.
I'm not snobby, either. Dad asked what you'd be making there if it became permanent. I answered, "It doesn't matter. He's happy."
Love,
Mom