I love these SLIM weekend adventures. This weekend was no exception and I have some things to pontificate about.
At first, I thought I'd be an archivist and work in some historical documents type of career - preservation and cataloging and such. The sort of thing that Evie does in "The Mummy." But as I got thinking about it, I realized that my bliss is actually in doing something with teenagers. Back when I was doing my undergrad, I has a desire to teach high school, but as I got into the teaching program, I learned that I didn't want to teach (not the way they were teaching us to teach, anyway). I took a couple of years off to work and go on a mission. When I got home, I started researching library science programs and I found the one I'm in, which lets me stay at home. This turns out to be key because I got to be the yearbook adviser at the high school and I was reminded that I enjoy being around teenagers (call me strange and kooky, but that's what I like). Plus, in one of my classes, we were assigned to interview somebody who had done some kind of information search and analyze their information searching methods. I interviewed this 8th grade student who had just done a research paper for his English class and I had a blast talking to him! I probably would not have had as good a time with an older person - I just enjoy that adolescent age group.
I want to do some good for young adults - I want to be an example for kids and help them in their education and their lives. So, I've decided that I want to be a librarian that specializes in the teen/young adult services and possibly be a school librarian (I'll have to check on requirements, but I've heard tell in Utah that all you need to be a school librarian is an MLS degree, which I will have in January 2012). I will still have the opportunity to teach and instruct, but it won't be as rigid as a regular classroom teacher and I'll get to have more fun with the students and not have to deal with crazy parents so much (just for the record - I am NOT a children's librarian type of person - I don't deal with little kids. Kudos to people who do, but that's not me).
I talked to one of my classmates this weekend about my decision and she said some things that were very encouraging to me. She mentioned that teenagers have a hard enough time in life as it is and that's the age where we really start to lose them to bad decisions. That made me think of the most recent General Conference where all the speakers spoke of the importance of leading youth and helping them when they go astray - at the time I didn't think too much about the topics because I don't have kids nor am I in any kind of church leadership position over teenagers, so I didn't think it applied to me. Now, I want to go back and look that over because it's true - teenagers need our help the most. At least, that's how I feel.
So yep, I don't need to be any kind of fancy Indiana Jones type of curator or go on exotic study abroad trips to do what I want to do. While those things would be good opportunities, there are plenty of good things I can do at home. And I want to start with becoming trained to be a youth services librarian.
At first, I thought I'd be an archivist and work in some historical documents type of career - preservation and cataloging and such. The sort of thing that Evie does in "The Mummy." But as I got thinking about it, I realized that my bliss is actually in doing something with teenagers. Back when I was doing my undergrad, I has a desire to teach high school, but as I got into the teaching program, I learned that I didn't want to teach (not the way they were teaching us to teach, anyway). I took a couple of years off to work and go on a mission. When I got home, I started researching library science programs and I found the one I'm in, which lets me stay at home. This turns out to be key because I got to be the yearbook adviser at the high school and I was reminded that I enjoy being around teenagers (call me strange and kooky, but that's what I like). Plus, in one of my classes, we were assigned to interview somebody who had done some kind of information search and analyze their information searching methods. I interviewed this 8th grade student who had just done a research paper for his English class and I had a blast talking to him! I probably would not have had as good a time with an older person - I just enjoy that adolescent age group.
I want to do some good for young adults - I want to be an example for kids and help them in their education and their lives. So, I've decided that I want to be a librarian that specializes in the teen/young adult services and possibly be a school librarian (I'll have to check on requirements, but I've heard tell in Utah that all you need to be a school librarian is an MLS degree, which I will have in January 2012). I will still have the opportunity to teach and instruct, but it won't be as rigid as a regular classroom teacher and I'll get to have more fun with the students and not have to deal with crazy parents so much (just for the record - I am NOT a children's librarian type of person - I don't deal with little kids. Kudos to people who do, but that's not me).
I talked to one of my classmates this weekend about my decision and she said some things that were very encouraging to me. She mentioned that teenagers have a hard enough time in life as it is and that's the age where we really start to lose them to bad decisions. That made me think of the most recent General Conference where all the speakers spoke of the importance of leading youth and helping them when they go astray - at the time I didn't think too much about the topics because I don't have kids nor am I in any kind of church leadership position over teenagers, so I didn't think it applied to me. Now, I want to go back and look that over because it's true - teenagers need our help the most. At least, that's how I feel.
So yep, I don't need to be any kind of fancy Indiana Jones type of curator or go on exotic study abroad trips to do what I want to do. While those things would be good opportunities, there are plenty of good things I can do at home. And I want to start with becoming trained to be a youth services librarian.
No comments:
Post a Comment