I'm back...

I’m back!  So many changes over the past two years that I hardly know where to begin! 

You may note that my tagline has a new addition – librarian-in-training.  After almost twenty years of practicing law, I decided to go where my passions led me.  My time-line went something like this:

August 2018 – A confluence of chances led to my taking a part-time job in my daughter’s middle school library, job sharing with two other full-time moms with whom I have volunteered in the elementary library almost a decade.  We decided to put those skills learned as elementary school library volunteers to good use and take over a middle school library program that has been, to put it nicely, underwhelming students and teachers for years!

August 2019 – After a whole lot of conversations with my law partner husband about how we’d make it work on top of still practicing law, working in the library, and, oh yeah, having two kids and a husband, I started working toward my MLIS degree at the University of South Carolina.  The program is 100% online, which is great, because…

March 2020 – Well, you know what March brought!  COVID… shelter-in-place… masks… social distancing… digital learning… remote working.  It’s a new world – one that is simultaneously scary (especially for the elderly and the immune-compromised, which includes some Very. Important. People. in our family) and filled with opportunity.  I’m focusing on the opportunity. 

·        Do I love being home with my kids? Yes, I do! 

·        Are we learning all kinds of things about how computers, cellphones, social media, online ordering, Zoom, and just technology in general can make life, well, better if not great?  Yes, we are!  

·        Are we making the most of every small moment we get to spend masked up, outdoors, and socially distanced with family and a few close friends?  Absolutely!

April 2020 – Packing up and moving an ENTIRE MIDDLE SCHOOL LIBRARY!  Safely!  In the middle of a pandemic!

Summer 2020 – No travel…  (wah-wah…) No camps… (boooooo…) But wait, I’m focusing on the opportunity!  Lots of family time, puzzles, reading, long walks in the neighborhood, Amazon boxes on the porch, maybe-we-can-do-delivery-from-our-favorite-places-again, and online classes!  So. Many. Classes.  (Seriously.  I took four classes during the summer.  Exhausting AND fun!)

August 2020 – Unpacking and setting up an ENTIRE MIDDLE SCHOOL LIBRARY!  Safely!  In the middle of a pandemic!

So… here I am.  Embracing my studies and my new work (as well as my old work… maybe more about that later), learning remotely with my 5^th grader and 9^th grader alongside (because school has started back for all of us), running a school library remotely in the middle of a pandemic, focusing on the OPPORTUNITY. 

I’ll be trying to post here a little more regularly, reflecting on what I’m learning and where I’m heading.  I look forward to putting my mind-fluff out there again and hearing from whomever takes the time to read!