don't see lightning like last fall
Well, I haven't been swept off to Munchkinland, although the number of children at work today led me to question that fact several times over the course of the afternoon. All we had was a lot of pretty, mostly-distant lighting and then a really good soaking overnight. Oh, and it's fall today. It was summer yesterday, but today it is fall. I passed a tree that was honestly day-glo orange; it was beautiful. And the wind was kicking up, and the clouds were low and heavy and scudding across the sky, and everything was awesome.
So I have to write a personal statement for my grad school applications. And I have to do it...really really soon. It's great--one school wants less than 500 words, and another one demands at least 500 words.
So I'm going to ramble on about library-related things, and you all get to be privy to it. If you want to be.
When I was in second grade, the school librarian wouldn't let me read books from the middle-school shelves. For some reason I had become very taken with the cover of The Hobbit, and I wanted to check it out. It wasn't that the elementary-school books were bad, but there's only so many times a girl can check out Blueberries for Sal before getting really bored. I used to hang around the middle-school shelves, sighing pointedly within earshot of my teacher. Once I got the book off the shelf, slipped it into the middle of a small stack of books, and attempted to fool the librarian into checking it out.
It didn't work. Sure, I could have gone to the local public library and checked out the so-called "middle-school books" with no trouble at all, but it was the principle of the thing. There was information hidden on those shelves, and I couldn't have it.
That doesn't mean my wanting to become a librarian is a crusade--it definitely isn't. But I want to be the one who opens those doors, instead of closing them.
It's a horribly dorky thing to say, but I love the feeling of helping people. Honestly. When somebody comes to me and says, "I don't think you can help me, but..." I immediately resolve to help them. "I looked everywhere for this book, I don't think you have it" just makes me that much more determined to go the extra mile. I love putting a book in someone's hands, especially if they've already consigned themselves to the impossibility. I like saying, "Here, let me look one more place," and coming back triumphant. Or if not triumphant, at least with advice on how they can get ahold of the information they need. It gives me warm fuzzy feelings, not unlike a good fluffy pancake fanfic.
The other day at work, a couple of second-graders were sitting in the kids' area, with every single Star Wars cross-section book spread out around them. They were literally cross-referencing things; it was adorable. The one kid's mother came back and said he had to check out a "real book." I rolled my eyes secretly; then when she went off with her stack of romance novels (irony != lost on me XD), I went over to the kids. "Hey," I said. "Did you know we have Star Wars story books too? About Obi-Wan when he was a kid?" I swear, that little kid's eyes just lit up. I took him to the JF series section, picked out the first Jedi Apprentice book and the first Last of the Jedi book, and he was reading as he walked away. I felt so awesome in that moment. I made a kid happy. I probably pissed his mom off, but that was just a bonus. I matched a person with a book, and I made this person happy. I could happily do this for the rest of my life.
Oh, yeah, and a small child decided to be my mini-me today. She was...two? three? and she followed me around, setting books on shelves as I went. Granted, I had to go back later and reshelve everything, but she was so excited to be "helping" that I didn't mind a bit. Then she went off in search of the "Fiffer" books, which turned out to be the "Clifford" books. This has no place in any kind of academic writing, I just thought she was freaking adorable.
Arg. Can my personal statement just be: I like books. I like people. I like helping people find books. Please let me go to your school.
It's short, it's to the point, and it's at least 84% true!
Even my rambling is not 500 words long. I could rhapsodize on the Dewey Decimal System for another 300 words or so, maybe, but that's my limit.
FTS. I'm going to eat some chocolate and read Eragon. I kind of hope it's bad.
And in closing, last night I dreamed that my parents owned a pair of alligators, which they kept leashed like dogs...under the deck. The 6' female was sweet-tempered, but apparently the 9' male was mean. And it had a habit of escaping and hiding under beds. So everyone be sure to check your beds for alligators before you go to sleep tonight.