Widening Horizons

When I grow up I want to be a librarian. Here is where my adult children start laughing. After all, from their point of view, I am grown up. I know how to cook, clean, do laundry, write a resume -- all the things about which they regularly call me for advice. I also know such things as how often to change furnace filters and get the oil changed in my car, or when to renegotiate my mortgage and what makes a good hostess gift.

But I'm still learning -- and I'm finding that I like learning in a formal setting. I like being in school. I don't think I would have said that 30 years ago. I know I wouldn't have. I was unfocused and shortsighted. Now that my sight need not be as far, I look into the future and know that it's tomorrow. I also know that I can change the future -- both in terms what I'm doing in it, and now I feel about it.

So I'm in school. Will I ever work at a library service desk or be a library director? Maybe. Maybe not. I may spend the rest of my career as a public relations manager. I like it. I'm good at it. I like the flexibility and the uncertainty (Will the reporter with his own agenda call me today for a story? Will my story come through the reporting?). I like telling the library's story wherever I go. I like showing people the treasures within our brick and mortar wall -- and within our cyberwalls. It's fun. I never do the same things two days in a row.

So why am I in school? I'm doing something I love to do. Well, someday another opportunity may present itself -- or something may change and I am have to go looking for opportunities. I just want to keep my options open -- and keep adding to the options available.

And I like school. Yes, I panic. Yes, I sweat over papers and tests and grades. Yes, I worry about measuring up in the eyes of teachers and classmates half my age. I also worry about measuring up in the eyes of my husband and daughters. I don't want to fail them. But I still like school. I like that being in classes is broadening my horizons. I like that I'm finally connecting the dots in libraryland. I know why things are done. It makes a big difference -- maybe not in the doing, but in the understanding. I look at my co-workers, and wish they'd all make the decision I have. That they'd go to school -- with no surety other than opening their own eyes -- and gain perspectives on our chosen career and the place of libraries in the world. Or they could study mathematics or science or philosophy or anthropology or dead languages, for that matter. School broadens your horizons -- and there's not one of us who couldn't benefit from looking at the world from outside of ourselves.

Would reading do it? Sure -- except that in school, you learn from teachers and classmates as well as from reading material. The more opinions the merrier.

And on that note. Celebrate whatever you celebrate at this time of year! Enjoy.