Prologue

In the beginning…

there was a girl who loved to read. She lived near a library and would go there often to feed her hunger for books. This insatiable appetite for books ran in her family. In fact, weekend outings were usually to the library where everyone would return home with big piles of books which would be read before the next weekend. One memory she had of her childhood was her mother reading chick-lit in bed in the afternoons.

Although coming from a non-English-speaking family, the little girl grew up surrounded by English books. Her parents knew the importance of the language for her and her sisters to survive and make something of themselves.

The little girl went to the same elementary school as her sisters. Although she had a hard time living in the shadows of her more studious elder sisters, she always had her books  for solace. She finally found her footing and blossomed in high school. That was also where she found her love for English literature. It was no surprise that she was a student librarian during that time. Graduating from high school, she got into the English literature department of the local college and read English as a major, developing a love for words and writing.

At the major crossroad of her life after graduating from college, she received 2 job offers at 2 very different places. One was a teaching job and the other was a writing job. She chose teaching as she had a dream of sharing her love for reading and literature to the younger generation.

To become a better teacher, she went back to school to get the required teacher’s certification. And she taught high school English for 4 years, during which time she went back to school again to do her masters. That opened the door for her to other opportunities and she found herself teaching English overseas. Although all alone in a foreign country, she was with friends, her books, and was a regular at the local library and bookstore.  However, after a couple of years, despite really loving her work, she had to go back home due to family responsibilities.

Back home, she decided to return to school to pursue another degree. The choice was obvious. Since libraries held such fond memories for her and she had always been associated with a library in her job as a teacher, she decided to work towards something that would give her the qualifications to work as a professional librarian. After 2 years of hitting the books and taking care of the sick parent (who has, meanwhile, gotten better, both physically and mentally), she finally graduated. And found a job at an academic library. While she loves her teaching job, she hopes to find out if her childhood love for the library and the treasures within can be translated into a love for working in libraries. This is her story as she struggles through her first year to find out.