I like to tell people that working at the library is the dream job I never knew I wanted. Let me explain.
I grew up coming to the Provo City Library – it has been my library since it moved to Academy Square, and even before that I remember going to the old library on Center Street. My family would visit the library at least once a week, and we would leave with armfuls of books and VHS tapes. My mom was a stickler for “summer learning,” and so once school let out we would come by even more often – we would earnestly participate in the summer reading program, we checked out educational videos (I’m not kidding - my mom was really invested in expounding on our intellect during the summer), and my sister and I would go to library programs to make crafts – some of which my parents have still saved.
I think the library meant more to me than my siblings - when they all got interested in sports, I stayed interested in books. When they grew up and went to college and stopped visiting the library, I would still find reasons to go. I stopped reading as much, as people tend to do when life gets busier, but even then I would still come and check out CDs or DVDs regularly. This library has always been a special place for me. I still have a copy of my favorite book from childhood – BOSTON JANE by Jennifer L. Holm– that I won at a children’s program when I was in fourth grade. When I was choosing my prize, I remember the librarian in charge of the program guiding me towards that particular book –
“You’ll really like this one,” she told me, “since you like historical fiction.”
She was right.
Now that I work at the library, I strangely feel like my life has come full circle. I like to sit at the reference desk and smile at the families leaving with arms full of books and DVDs (some things do change) and I love recommending books to readers in the hopes that I’ll manage to find a new group of kids their favorite novel. I really do love watching the kids running around the children’s section or coming into the programs I teach and hoping that someday they will learn to love books and this library in the way that I do.
I never imagined myself as a librarian, but after all the good the library has done for me it only seems fitting that I would feel right at home working here. The dream job I never knew I wanted, if you will.
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