Where I've Been

driving winding roads, living with the twists and turns

This week I attended a new director’s library retreat to kick off a year of training for my new role at HPL. The retreat was held at Rock Springs campgrounds, a place I previously visited as a women’s retreat speaker. It was interesting, as I wound through the twists and turns driving through the camp, thinking about how my life’s been pretty twisty since the last time I was at the camp as well. There are things that haven’t changed – I live in the same town I have since graduating college, I live in the same house we’ve been renovating for nine years, for example. When I was at Rock Springs before, I was pretty solidly on the writer/speaker track. I was writing often and I was also being invited to speak at events about my faith, about my experience working through my own trauma, even about being a track coach.

The pandemic physically brought my speaking engagements to a halt. There aren’t invitations to speak at non-existent events, after all. The pandemic also shifted my view of writing for public consumption. It damaged me in ways I still don’t verbalize for a public audience. So much of me is different, including my profession.

I didn’t set out to become a librarian. I’ve always thought it would be fun, sure, but the opportunity wasn’t there. And then, a part-time clerk position opened. It got me out of the house and writing/working alone and plunged me back into the public. It gave me co-workers, which was a positive change. I also didn’t set out to be a director. But here I am. I’m no longer speaking from a stage or writing for various publications, but there’s not a day that goes by when I don’t use my communication degree or my writing skills for the library – it just looks quite a bit different than where I was seven years ago.

What things have changed for you in the last ten years?