Her tshirt reads: Becoming the doctor my parents always wanted me to marry. An alumni in the making.
Several months ago, I met the Civil Engineer who would head our parking lot project, and as we talked about his background, I found out that his roots are here in Greenwood. In fact, he spent a good amount of time in our very library as he studied to become an engineer. I knew he looked familiar! We see a lot of college and graduate students in our library studying long hours, and we don’t always know their story. But more and more they are returning home as professionals, their studies having paved the way for their success. Just last week I met with a project manager for our HVAC project and found that he, too, had studied long hours at our library during his college years. I feel like we have an alumni, of sorts, and it is a delight to meet them as they return.
Some of our alumni graduated from story time, and are the grown up versions of the cute kids we see coming through our doors on a daily basis. They have warm memories of story time, armfuls of books, and the comfort of being read to. We have heard from a few of them, as well. One of them heard of our troubles several years ago and connected us with a much appreciated grant even though she now lives far away.
Mike is another alumnus – but his degree program wasn’t through a college, rather it was time spent searching for a job over a difficult 18 month stretch. When you see someone every day for that many months, you find yourself rooting for their success in a very personal way. Now, when Mike returns, he is proud in his work shirt and beaming through his safety glasses. His study at GPL paved the way for his success, too, and we love seeing him.
Some alumni are surprises. When I met Ashley, she was a middle school student and I was a part time librarian. Ashley became part of the GPL family as we watched her successfully navigate the boy crazy days and unique angst of being a teen. She did her homework, attended library programs, and was always a voracious reader. She paged for us, volunteered for us, and entertained us with stories of her school days. When it came time to send her off to college, we were as proud as if she were really ours. Some six years later, college degree in hand and over a year of teaching English in Japan under her belt, she is all grown up and back home again. To our amazement she is back in school to get her master’s degree in Library Science. And she’s even come home to GPL again, working at both our adult reference and children’s reference desks.
For me, these stories make each day at the library come alive. Our building is full today, but it isn’t just full of door count statistics. It is full of sparks of inspiration, the hard work of change, and the discovery of new journeys. What a better mission could we have than to support the lives and future of our community? Perhaps Ann Patchett said it best:
“Know this — if you love your library, use your library. Support libraries in your words and deeds. If you are fortunate enough to be able to buy your books, and you have your own computer with which to conduct research, and you’re not in search of a story hour for your children, then don’t forget about the members of your community who are like you but perhaps lack your resources — the ones who love to read, who long to learn, who need a place to go and sit and think. Make sure that in your good fortune you remember to support their quest for a better life. That’s what a library promises us, after all: a better life. And that’s what libraries have delivered.”