Living Storybooks: The Human Library

It is more than common knowledge that cultures have a history of oral traditions, but I did not know that oral story-telling was something that was still around today. The Human Library is a fascinating consortium of real story-tellers who you can meet face-to-face and learn about a given topic. The site does a great job of explaining the reasons why someone would rent a living book and their library covers a wide array of topics under the category "Prejudices"- things readers around the globe can always benefit from knowing more about.

If I were to create an outline for my own living book based on my path to education for library and information science, it might look something like this:

Do What's Right For You! 

A beginner's guide to blowing off "the plan"

 

If you find yourself in constantly asking, "Am I doing the right thing? Is it because of me that things aren't working out as expected? Why to I hate this so much?" when you're studying and learning about topics that should be "perfect" for you, this book will help you realize that it's not you- it's them. Society tells us that when we are 18 years-old we should have a well-enough formed idea of who we are and what we want from life, but realistically this is far from true. This book is a testament to the fact that you can change your mind and things will still be alright.

 

Chapter 1 The Path Paved Prematurely: choices that may come to define your sense of self

Chapter 2 The Path Discovered: revelations and experiences that should have been more revealing than they were

Chapter 3 Know Thyself and Own It: finding out that "giving up" is entirely subjective

 

Almost every professional you talk to can describe experiencing a series of career changes throughout their lives, be they minor changes or complete make-overs. When you are in your late teens and early twenties, the idea of choosing a career means finding a path and seeing it through to the end. You choose a career and you dictate either your work experience or higher education after high school according to what you "should" do in order to become a ___. If (and when) you reach a point at which you no longer find enjoy what you're doing and look forward to spending time doing anything else, you should know that it's okay to walk away. Your work will be the focus of most of your time for many years, and if you can't enjoy it you won't enjoy your life. Allow yourself to start over. It's not about giving up in the face of expectations, it's about giving in to the truth that you expect more for yourself. There is something to be learned from every experience and with every experience more of who you are becomes revealed. Allow yourself to learn from experiences and allow them to guide your future, not some essay on "Careers That Interest Me" that you were required to write for your senior year composition class.

My path to the MLIS program has been an interesting ride. As a senior in high school all I knew was that I loved art, reading, psychology, and offering my friends advice about their problems. So, for my senior writing class assignment (mentioned above) I was trying to choose between writing about Art Education and Social Work. In my research on the subjects I stumbled upon Art Therapy and believed "This is it! Perfect! A blend of the two!" From that moment on, I wanted to be an "art therapist". 

 

I went to college, double majored in art and psychology and worked for four years in the circulation department of the library and loved it, went to graduate school, and got a job with Barnes & Noble. My first semester of graduate school was tumultuous to say the least (for personal reasons, not educational ones) and I ended up transferring from where I was in Chicago back to Ohio. Then I really got into it! It was a fresh start, new people, closer to my family, and after about 4 weeks I started to doubt my decision. Then after the first semester I was dissatisfied. After the second semester I applied to this program because I started to think that I might need a back-up plan. 

 

For the next 6 semesters I had nary a pleasant thing to say or think about anything I was doing and every single semester I thought about quitting and kept making excuses to stay. I thought it was me, it was just "that" experience, it was just "that" learning style, it was just "that" topic, and I only had __ more semesters to go! Finally, 3 months before my final semester was to begin (after I wrote my 100+ page thesis) I realized that I was completely dreading going back. I didn't want to be there and thinking about going back after the summer broke me. I went back into my emails from Kent saying if I wanted to do the program I needed to start before the end of the summer or reapply again in the future and I just jumped right in and haven't regretted a single moment so far.