As I have mourned my mother this year, I have also been questioning
what comes next. My daughters are grown; my parents are
dead. For the first time since my oldest was born in 1973, I
don't have caregiving responsibilities.
For more than thirty years, family has been my first priority; my
career played second fiddle. Should I be a librarian or a
social worker? Public librarians are also social workers; people
feel much more comfortable seeking information and advice from
friendly, helpful people who don't pin a diagnostic label on
them. I have been much more confident I have genuinely helped my
library patrons than my therapy clients.
In ten days I begin a new job as a young adult librarian in a small
public library on Long Island.I am looking forward to spending my
working life hanging out with teens. I have never entirely
outgrown adolescence. My mom was a high school teacher; she
credited her students for much of her youthful vitality, enthusiasm,
openness to new ideas.
4:30:06 PM 
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