My immediate reaction on the day I got hired was excitement, mixed in with a bit of shock. Of the over fifteen jobs I had applied for, this was the only one that had called me for an interview. When I did get the call, I had already started to accept that I likely would not have a school library job this year.
After about twenty minutes of excitement, reality sunk in. Here I was, an inexperienced new librarian just out of grad school about to take on a huge responsibility. The excitement quickly turned to panic.
The first few weeks of school were very overwhelming for me. It was a new place with new people. I had to learn hundreds of new names, had no idea what the students already knew, and had to learn quickly what books I had in my library. Over those first few weeks I had many moments of self doubt. It was a very emotional time which included a couple occasions where I closed myself up in a room with a bunch of chocolate at the end of the day!
Fortunately, I work with a lot of wonderful, patient people who have all been very understanding and supportive of me. This really helped me make it through those overwhelming weeks.
As the weeks have gone on, I have felt myself become more comfortable and more confident. At least now I know the teachers’ names, and am starting to get to know the names of my students as well. I am feeling so much better now than I did just a couple months ago. As I become more comfortable, I can also feel myself growing to love my job more each day.
What really helps is those moments where a student will do something or say something that shows me that they were listening to me and actually learned something. Having a lot of enthusiastic students who enjoy what I’m teaching them is an amazing thing. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
As for the knitting, I’ve only had very limited time for that! I did make it to knit night last week and had a great time! I’m hoping to make it there more often, especially with lots of gifts that need to be knitted for Christmas! It was great seeing everyone this week at knit night. I’m going to miss seeing my knit group when I move in May to be closer to work. But there’s still a lot of time between now and then so I’ll just have to try to get to knit night more often!
