This academic year, I learned a new word applying a series of changes happening around me at work: change saturation. It means so much change has happened, in short bursts without room to absorb, you can’t do it anymore. I put my vacation request as soon as the call went out to start thinking about time off. I had a time frame, checked the group calendar, filled out my form to hand into my supervisor. If I didn’t have training coming up on our new integrated library system, I would take a breather at the end of May not the end of June. At least, I have vacation privileges period.
The scramble exam scramble has begun with a packed library, even in the evening. We had a significant change in library policy causing more students to come down and engage our services as well as our spaces. Ready for it?
We now allow food.
That’s it. That’s all.
No more prohibition-era level sneaking among students, no more confrontations about policy, and, like I said, students engage more with the library as space and service. Then again, that’s my perspective. Talk to someone else, and a crumb looks like proof it fails. Honestly, students will head off to the world of work and perhaps, and as I get older feel more convinced, sometimes a situation not resembling a ‘real world’ allows space for the soul to breath, enough to deal with the real world after all.
All the running around personally and professionally meant little blogging. I spent more time on Twitter than here. In fact, I took Twitter off my phone for the time being. Sorry, my darling Richard, I will try to catch your selfies on Instagram. If I had a theme this year, it’s drawing lines around my life. I enjoy my work, this year will mark 10 years since I graduated with my Library Technician Diploma, to go with my Bachelor of Education, yet to devote energy, I need to conserve it. It means not getting involved in projects considered optional not assigned. The increase in students in the library has provided a jolt, and those encounters may play a role in whether someone finishes a program or not. Those students are who I am here for and why I scaled back.
In related news, my nephew will write his final, final exam in university tonight. After it’s done, his convocation happens in June. Yikes! Once he fell asleep on my shoulder and now, now he will take up his career as an account. Lately, I have thought about education, especially with the Manitoba government looking to overhaul our K-12 system and cutting funding everywhere else. Yes, it sometimes seems like one and the same. However, as things get disrupted, including education, I wonder what’s it all for? Right now, it’s strap in and ride the end of the year out. A break will do wonders for reflecting on questions later.
Unpaused Life 