One of our staff members completed her Master's degree - yeah! It's not easy juggling a job and assigned readings and papers and everything else. Plus this year we lost a staff person in Public Services and reconfigured the entire department so that everyone had to learn a new position. But she did marvelously well. We were all so proud to hug her as she walked across the platform begowned and capped.
The entire Library took her to lunch to celebrate. We gathered at the Friendly's on Lyell Ave in a side room where we pushed tables together to form one big family style space. How wonderful it was to gather with no agenda other than to celebrate! With the semester safely ended and summer projects underway, we kicked back and munched our salads and sandwiches happily, chattering away about everything and nothing.
As I glanced around the table, I was struck by how close we have all become. Moving into a new building, finding ourselves in foreign waters, working together to keep afloat in hard times, having each other's backs when the workload increased - in three short years we have become tightly knit. Family.
We are indeed a very exclusive group brought together by common activity. We have birthday parties and holiday gatherings just like any other family. And now we add a second graduation to our list of accomplishments. Soon we will go on our first full library retreat, taking time aside to see where we are, how we are doing, reflect on the last whirlwind three years.
It's nice to have a second family. How rare to find in your workplace a family you enjoy being part of. So many work environments are hostile, demanding, brutal, uncaring. Not this one. Sure, we all have our little foibles and rough edges, but we get along well. At least, I hope the others feel as at home as I do.
That comfort is working itself out in the way I decorate my office. I am really make it my own space these days. I have never done that before. My offices were merely places to work out of and I took whatever I found there and arranged it so I could work comfortably. But here I have moved in. Is that a bad thing? Am I becoming too ensconced? My fear is that I will want to stay when my work here is done and my path should lead elsewhere.
Perhaps the unwillingness to put down roots came with my Father's job taking us somewhere new every five years or so. Never get used to anyplace. Never let your heart connect on a deep level. Always guard against wanting to settle in. I have some work to do to get over that. Some of my siblings reacted to our childhood journey by settling in and refusing to budge. Not me. I learned to stay loose. Now, I am learning to connect and stay put! At least for awhile.
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