We interrupt your regularly scheduled Three On Thursday post for a very special thing that simply must be acknowledge.
Twenty years ago today I started working for the Town of Carver as the Library Director. TWENTY YEARS. That, my friends, is a long ass time to work in one place. To keep it slightly on point for today, I would venture that twenty years at the same spot means three things:
- I love my job.
- I have created opportunities to keep it fresh and interesting.
- I am good at commitment.
Since 9/19/99 I have worked for three different Town Administrators, answered to many, many Library Trustees, Selectmen/women, and Board members, submitted lots and lots of budgets and invoices, written tons of policies, hired and supervised some truly great people, witnessed retirements and resignations, attended a jillion meetings and a ton of conferences, mixed things up by adding in responsibilities as the Council on Aging Director, prepared reports for the state, completed performance reviews, checked out lots and lots of books, and so much more.
Of course I haven’t loved every moment of it, some of it is boring and some of it is difficult, and some of it is even sometimes disheartening (I’m looking at you, budget cuts), but through it all I have known that I am in the exact right place for me. I have known, with absolute clarity, that I’m where I belong, working with the best people and doing a job that truly matters in this world. Librarians for the win, my friends.
About a week after I started this job an article appeared in the local paper. The reporter introduced me to the town, talked about my background and education, referenced my lifelong dream of being a librarian, and made me sound pretty damn accomplished. The article was accompanied by this photo:
I sure look young! (I turned 34 two days after I started.)
The third paragraph of the article says: Julius said she can remember frequent trips to the library during her childhood and a vague feeling that the librarian had to be the smartest person in the world. In the fifth grade she said she learned that the librarian wasn’t necessarily the smartest person in the world, but, rather, knew where to find all the information. She latched onto that idea, determining to work in a library when she grew up. “Not many people set out to make this their life’s work, but I did,” she said.
Twenty years later and those words are as accurate as ever. I still consider myself lucky to have known what I wanted to do with my life since childhood. And I’m really honored to have spent so much of my career working in a beautiful building with wonderful people serving the people of a truly special town.
