Like a moth in a bath

It’s late. Midnight is oozing closer. By now, I’ve wrung every decent television program out of the TV and have begun to contemplate a DVD.
I acknowledge that midnight is not so late for a Friday but tomorrow I have to face the public with a smile and preferably, without bags under my eyes.
Generally, I’d have to say I’m not a fan of working the ever sacred weekend. However… I love my job.

After high school with no clue as to what I wanted to do with my life, I did what many young people do… procrastinate.
I picked the only subject I was passionate about, Japanese, and decided to study it further at Uni.
It was a Japanese teaching course, or to use the fancy pants title, Bachelor of Learning Management – Japanese.
To spoil the ending of this tale, I did not complete the course. Turns out I’m not as fond as children as you’d think. Apparently, having many younger (read: irritatingly insolent) siblings does not prepare you for the classroom.
This said, I do not regret my time spent on prac in Australia or Japan (I was lucky enough to try both). I loved learning a different language and studying learning management opened my eyes to organisational techniques and other useful finds. Primarily though, I became aware of the concept 'lifelong learning'.

I love learning new things. I’m not a natural talent at anything (except Guitar Hero). I’m not one of those people who can just ‘pick it up’ without being taught how.
I must be trained and then practise what I have learnt to become any good at it. Digression aside, I love learning new things.
Back at Uni I decided I’d like to be a professional student. Just stay at Uni and learn stuff forever. Unfortunately, tuition costs saw this plan fail.

One morning, many moons ago, my mother looked up from the newspaper and told me about an advertisement for an administration traineeship at the local council.
I was none too amused, but did her the kindness of checking out the ad.
Along with the prior mentioned traineeship there was also a trainee wanted at the public library. All I remember thinking was ‘wow’.

So, twelve months and a certificate 3 later I am a full time library assistant. And if I haven’t already mentioned it, I love my job.
I spend my days in a relatively serene (compared to a class full of thirty Japanese children doing some bizarre version of the Hokey Pokey), air-conditioned building surrounded by books. I assist book lovers and information seekers. I organise the unorganised and tidy the untidy. I am confronted with the occasional weirdy but that only serves to make my day a touch more interesting.

I achieved my goal of becoming a lifelong learner. Thanks to the wonderfully diverse public I learn new things every day. You never know when a client will pop in requesting a book on something you’ve never heard of.
Libraries are at the forefront of various emerging technologies and I feel I am privy to them all, this Licence 2 Test Drive thingy for example (note the savvy use of the number two as a substitute for the word to).

Midnight has sidled on by while I’ve been mulling over this blog and I really should be off. After all, I have to be at the library bright and early to open the doors to a fresh bunch of customer queries and a chock-a-block returns chute.


Kz