Last Day

Today was my last day working at my beloved Harold B. Lee Library. My job, first as a desk clerk, then as a Holds/Recalls secretary, was such an incredible blessing. I met amazing people and did work that I absolutely loved. I can hardly believe it's over.

The last 3 and a half years have been great. I always felt so incredibly welcome in the Circulation department, from the very beginning. I remember being trained, feeling completely overwhelmed by all the information that I had to learn, then eventually getting a handle on everything. Working at the front desk was always so fun, especially with Sondra. She used to randomly survey random patrons. The only question I remember, though, had something to do with guys wearing pink shirts. I remember when Alexis got a promotion to TL and we had a running joke where I would show her the reserve book I was about to shelve. (This comes from when we were supposed to have another person check books we were about to shelve so as to cut down on non-reserve books being shelved in Reserve.) I remember when I worked with Tim one late night and he essentially gave me a home teaching message. I remember being sick and having someone send me home and cover my shift for me. I remember root beer float Saturdays with Lilia and Jennica. I remember many many deep conversations at the front desk when JoAnn overhear us in her office and join in the discussion. I remember the first day Camille left me alone in Holds/Recalls to do the work by myself. I remember teaching Austin about stealing Blackboard and encouraging him to write the best ever Blackboard theft post. I remember doing Book Processing with Parker when he read me Italian poetry. I remember really hating to call people about Reserve Recalls. I remember decorating the ginormous Christmas tree last year with everyone. I remember the day nothing printed out for Holds and Recalls and we had to do everything manually. There are so many good memories.

Today, Kristina (my dear former fellow Holds/Recalls secretary) commented that now that I'm leaving all the knowledge and information I learned at the library will be useless. Yes, some of it will be. But I hope that I've learned something more important than procedures and policies. Like learning how to be patient with people, learning to put myself in someone else's shoes, learning to respect other's beliefs and opinions. I hope that I'm a better person now than I was when I walked through the Reserve Door for my job interview over three years ago. I feel like I've grown up so much. And now it's time to do even more growing up.