The Library Saved My Life!

For all the hyperbole in that title, I do believe the sentiment, at least from a certain point of view, if I may invoke a wise man from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

In the last forty-two years, I've spent more hours of my life in libraries than in any other type of institutional buildings, IF I only count time spent actively engaged in my surroundings. Oh sure, whiled away huge chunks of my time in classrooms of varying sorts, from public schools to graduate level instruction. No doubt many of my life's moments slipped past in shopping venues, dining establishments, and all manner of recreational facilities. Don't even get me started on how long I spent in public "conveniences" through my life or in transportation from here to there. None of those minutes/hours/days of time enriched me as did the bits of my life spent in libraries.

At school, I was the worst student (and I know plenty who can attest to the fact that I STILL may be among the worst). My mind moved too fast to keep the pace of school, or so one of my personal theories about myself goes. Perhaps my intellect possessed both too much ambition and too little practicality to excel in academic pursuits. I have been called lazy, unmotivated, uninterested, ADD, ADHD, afraid to apply myself, and even by one brutally honest and brilliantly observant teacher, accused of "doing really stupid things for such a smart person." To me, it all translated to confirmation that I didn't want to learn what THEY wanted to teach me. Maybe I WAS just lazy. I happily entertain these notions and many more besides, and my reason for that is because I just don't really care about the WHY so much as I care about HOW I managed to keep myself thriving.

That HOW is where the library comes in. All through my schooling, through nearly every class and every project, from Grade 1 to my current Master of Library Science degree program, rather than sit in class, I'd go to the library and learn what I wanted to know!

Did the libraries I visited save my life by taking a bullet for me or curing my terminal disease? That would be ludicrous to assume, but libraries did offer me safe places where I could let my mind grow and mature in ways that made me who I am today. This life I live, all biological processes and intellectual pursuits, THIS is the only life I know, and I would not know it as I do if not for libraries helping to bring me here. Perhaps I could have given this post the title, "Fire Departments Saved My Life," or invoked any number of other institutions as being vital to me becoming the person writing this. However, none of those left such a deep, enduring mark on me. Memories of my elementary school library, the James A. Michener Library on the University of Northern Colorado campus, the Philip S. Miller Library in Castle Rock, these show how my true self came to be.

...Ah, now THERE's some hyperbole for you! I actually see my life as a perpetual work in progress, ever becoming. Even so, what I've found and continue to find in the libraries I know ‒ collections, staff, furnishings, most of all ideas ‒ allow me to see how wonderfully incomplete I am and how much I still can become. I would not trade THAT for anything!