Three Things I Forgot About Last Week

Things have been a little crazy.  We started a 1000 Books before Kindergarten pilot program this month.  The full rollout will begin in January of 2017. I am floored by the amount of work it required to get a program like this up and running the way it should be. If I hadn’t had a wonderful, thoughtful and extremely detailed person partnering with me, the program would have quickly disintegrated into mayhem.  I’ll be talking about this in my next two blog posts. As a result of the enormity of this task, I started getting a little grouchy. Okay, a lot grouchy.  These are the things I needed to remind myself of:

1. I forgot that I still need to be available to the families that I serve. A to-do list can take over everything.  People matter more than the next item that needs to be checked off. There has got to be time to sit(yes, sit) at the reference desk in the Children’s Room, make eye contact with and smile at everyone that comes in. This is a very important part of my job. Plus, I need to tell them about the program!
2. I forgot (but just for a moment) why I am doing this. I used to beg my mother to take me to the library. Beg. I love books. I love the fact that as a child, I discovered other worlds and other people like me in books. I began a love affair with words that started with reading. I want to keep helping children experience that.
3. I forgot that I’m getting better. It’s great to be free from the pressure to be the newest, smartest and youngest.  Please don’t get me wrong.  I’ve got fabulous ideas, but they are now tempered with experience and forgiveness.  I know that if an idea didn’t pan out the way I thought it would, I can try it a different way next time.  I like being older than most of the parents that bring their children to the library.  It’s fun to say, “When my daughter was your daughter’s age…”  The little things that used to occupy my mind and cause me to fret when I was a brand-new librarian just don’t seem to matter as much anymore. I still do get a little bit of stage fright before story time starts. I think that is a good thing. It shows that I still care. I am not jaded after singing the beanbag song for the millionth time and I am still having fun!