Last month, I spent a lot of my post talking about staying positive and trying to focus on the good during the hard months of summer reading.
Today I want to talk about the flip-side. The panic-inducing room scheduling mistake or the smelly poop on the rug or the bone deep exhaustion from six programs in three days combined with the worst hayfever you’ve ever had…simply put: the bad moments.
My job is amazing and I am truly blessed. But I would be a liar if I said that every moment involved sunshine, rainbows, and puppies raining from the sky.
But I think that we often see the perfectly cut movie version of library life instead of the day-to-day activities from our fellow librarians. Particularly in the online arena! I try to be incredibly positive on Twitter, on my blog, and here when I’m posting for ALSC. And while I think that certainly serves a purpose, I also want to take the chance to say that it’s okay to acknowledge the moments of bad. It’s okay that not every day ends with skipping and holding hands with the world.
I hope you noticed how I said “acknowledge” there and not “cling to these moments and define your job and existence by that incident”. That’s the other important part. Once you’ve acknowledged the moment, let it go. Shake it off. You don’t have to forget it, but you do have to move past it.
Talk to a co-worker, email your friends, dance it out, take a private moment to calm down, sing loudly in your car, breathe — whatever you need to do to get past it!
Your co-workers will pull the room together in time, the poop will come out of the rug, and eventually you’ll sleep and feel better.
Friends, hang in there. Summer’s almost over and that next (good) moment is on the horizon.
– Katie Salo
Early Literacy Librarian
Indian Prairie Public Library
http://storytimekatie.com
Abby Johnson
YES! THIS! Yesterday, my colleagues and I were sitting in the back office acknowledging how run-down we’d been feeling last week (and last week was not even a particularly hard week! And this summer has actually been pretty easy for us!). We all have our bad days, our bad weeks… but this, too, shall pass. Thanks for sharing this, Katie.
Katie Salo Post author
I think it’s so important to take the time to do that! I sent out an email recently about a frustrating day and immediately felt better about the situation. I didn’t need to “fix” the situation — but I did need to be heard!