Life at the OPL

As some of you may know, I started a four-month internship at the Orem Public Library this week. I won't go into the nitty gritty about HOW I got this internship--but suffice it to say that is was through the Stimulus Package. It's an internship specifically to create summer jobs for people in my age bracket, 18-24, who are having a hard time getting a job this summer. That's me. That WAS me, I should say. Now, I have an almost full-time job for the next four months at exactly the place I wanted to work. I definitely got the sweet end of the lollipop.

Okay, so my verdict after five days employment at the OPL: how can I put this... I am frequently asked what I plan to do with my English degree. They immediately ask if I want to teach. No, I say. Their bewildered looks speak volumes. It's as if they are saying, "Well, what else can you do with an English degree?" They seem genuinely surprised that there are, in fact, many things to do with a degree that helps you be a more analytical thinker, writer, and conversationalist--one of which happens to be librarianship. Or as I like to think, getting paid to learn everything, on your own terms--test free--for the rest of you life. And getting paid to help others do the same. Hm. sounds pretty great to me.

Once when asked what I planned to do, (and I said library school, etc. etc.) this nice young man had the audacity to say, "There are few things I think would be more boring than Accounting, but Library School is one of them." In his defense, he was studying Accounting. But defense aside, what an unpardonable thing to say! Especially when one's library experience is limited to the stifled, quelling atmosphere of a huge academic library! (not that academic libraries are even necessarily thus.) For heaven's sake. I hope I don't find myself going around saying that people's professed ambitions are "boring." Any job can be tedious at times.

My first week here at a public library has been anything but. Between extensive training at the reference desk (desks, actually) having to teach myself InDesign AND Excel, having to perform any little tasks AND assist patrons (which I am somewhat underqualified, at this point, to do) I have had anything but a boring week. I love the action! I love the energy of being surrounded by all kinds of people. I like that not everybody's Mormon; I like that not everybody is the same age; I like that everybody's got a different agenda. Everybody's got different wants and needs. I love working behind the scenes and seeing the delight of someone having found exactly what they wanted. The associate librarian who has been training me all week has given me a rather extensive tour of everything available at the library (databases included), and frankly...it's amazing. I am suddenly filled with this unspeakable desire to know everything! And guess what? I sort of need to if I'm going to be any good.

Boring? I think not. I haven't met a single boring person at the library--and some of them have been there for so long they're starting to rot. On the contrary, I find myself surrounded by kind, well-informed, liberal minded public servants. (I hope you are all smart enough to realize I'm not talking about politics.) This environment embraces everything I stand for. At the end of this week, I am as tired as I ever was the on the mission, and the only thing that sustains me when I lie down at night is the knowledge that I felt more tired than this every day in Brazil, and survived. But at the bottom of this fatigue is a kind of deep satisfaction. Maybe I am seeing all of this through rose-colored glasses. Maybe I am just dazzled by the idea that work can be interesting and not tedious, as I have found it in the past. But I am definitely okay with being dazzled right now.