The big news in my life is that I resigned from my job as a Speech Pathologist and accepted a position as a School Librarian in the local school district where my boys are. "You did what? Why?" That has been the big question that everyone keeps asking me. I have also heard "Didn't you take a big pay cut?" (None of your business, but not really, if you must know). I don't think I was fully aware of it, but I have been searching for something else professionally for awhile. I look back at my journal from last fall, and I was working through it and dreaming about it even at that point. I LOVE my speech students, I really do. I also LOVE my coworkers. However, the job itself just wasn't making me happy. I wasn't miserable, but I felt stuck. Speech Pathology is a great career, but something was just off. I can't really explain what it was, but I know in my heart that this decision to change jobs at this point in time was the right thing for me. How it happened was an amazing story. The woman who was doing both guidance and library was retiring at the end of the school year. The school district had someone lined up for the position before I had even heard that it was available. That person changed her mind, and the district advertised a position for both guidance and library. So I casually mentioned to my Dad that I wished the school would split the position and hire me for the School Library position part-time. Honestly, I said it as a joke, because never in my life did I think it was a possibility. He encouraged me to contact the principal and throw the idea out to him. "You never know." I sent an email, and was surprised when I got a response telling me to send in my resume. After that, things happened quickly. I interviewed the next week and then accepted the position an hour after I interviewed. The entire process happened over about 10 days. Through this time, I prayed and prayed for guidance and for God to help me determine if this was really the right change to make in my life. As I prayed over those 10 days, God just kept moving mountains and giving me signs that this was exactly where he was leading me. So I followed.
So this summer I have spent countless hours in the school library getting things ready for fall. It's been a lot of work, but I have loved every single second of it. I had the old, stuffy Elementary library painted a whimsical blue color. I moved out old shelves and filing cabinets that were unnecessary to create more space. I am currently working on weeding out old books and reference materials, which apparently has never happened because I am going through materials that students haven't used in 30+ years. Then because I have a touch of OCD, I have created beautiful labels to help with organization. I still have a long way to go, but eventually I will get there. I am hoping once I weed out all the old books in the elementary library, I can move out enough shelves so that I can have a reading corner with a fun, colorful rug for the younger grades. Here are a couple of pictures from the Elementary library:
For the high school library, I went with a farmhouse theme.
I also wanted an area where I could highlight certain books. I am starting with books that were turned into movies.
The biggest challenge so far has been technology. I have had to learn the software system for our online catalog, as well as the Accelerated Reader system since I will also be in charge of that. I am not confident with technology, nor skilled, so I have had several calls to tech support for assistance. The number of hours that I have spent deciding which books that I want to order this fall is crazy, but again I have loved every single second of it.
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