The past 6 years for me, have been about learning what it means to tell a good story with my life. In 2009 I started applying for jobs as I prepared to finish graduate school. I was one of the about-to-finish-my-graduate-degree-in-library-science-and-hoping-to-start-my-professional-career job hunters. And job searching is hard. It had also been a crazy couple years for personal reasons. I experienced a lot of loss and, it seemed, so had many of my friends and family. And, let me tell you, trying to apply for jobs while you're grieving is hard work. But somehow, I did it. I applied to jobs, I interviewed, I questioned, and I wondered: what next?
During that time I also read Donald Miller's book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. The book is about how we are called to tell a good story with our lives and not simply live comfortably. A good story involves risk, doing beautiful things, helping others, loving others. And that is what I want my life to to look like.
And so, I found myself in the middle of an awesome story. Because instead of getting a 'normal' librarian position in the United States, I spent a year and a half in Uganda, Africa. I was a solo librarian at small college, Reformed Theological College, just outside of Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Most days I was busy installing computers, cataloging books, answering reference questions, helping students learn English, or making friends with students and staff from numerous African countries and cultures...or maybe a little bit of everything.
For that year and a half I immersed myself in a new culture, worked in my favorite library, met amazing people from around the word, and most importantly, I hope I told a good story. A story about something bigger than me. This blog chronicled that story with all my musings about libraries, cultures, and stories.
And now, in 2015, I find myself recently married, living in the Twin Cities, and working at a large, local community college. Basically, I'm discovering how many life transitions you can cram into a short time! But more importantly, I find myself trying to figure out how and what my American Library Story looks like. I'm trying to go back to what inspired me in the first place to move outside my comfort zone...to a place of purpose and telling a good story. Here. Now. I miss my Ugandan Story all the time but now I am learning to tell a new library story. Tune in for more musings on libraries and cultures...in a new context.
Read an additional update HERE.
