By Lynette M.
All during my life, I was destined to be a librarian. I grew up in a tumultuous home. My parents were divorced and while I lived with my alcoholic mother most of the time, I was often in foster homes while she was trying to “dry out”.
I found that no matter which school I was in, what neighborhood I lived in or which family I lived with, I could visit the library and they were all the same. Different walls, different people maybe but the library itself was my friend. I could read a book and be lost in the movie that plays in my head with each book I read. It was escapism at its finest.
Destiny
The middle school principal asked me to be “library monitor” during 5th period of my grade 7 year. I was in Chorus during 5th period and he said, “Yes we know … but we want you to be in the library instead.” No, I cannot carry a note in a bucket.
In high school, the guidance counselor called me in to see if I wanted an after school and weekend job. Where I asked, you guessed it, at the public library.
When I was an adult with a family I decided to go back to school to become a teacher; one of my professors offered me a graduate assistantship to get my Master’s in her Discipline. The degree is a Master’s in Communication Arts, but many of the classes were librarianship.
Now here I am the library media specialist at a high school and I love it! My first position in education was as an elementary library media specialist, then on to a Vocational School library media specialist to where I am today.Patike