Learning Library

Inspirational song: I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) (The Proclaimers)

I was proud to have made one journey of a thousand steps yesterday, but today starts the next thousand. There is no quit in this girl yet.

Yesterday I corrected an oversight, and went to get a library card in town. I haven't done that in a few years, and I really don't know why. I spent seven years of my young adulthood working behind the library information desk. You'd think that I'd never be without a card again after that. I always said that my world revolved around the written word, cutting my teeth in the publishing world, working for years as a non-MLS holding librarian, spending the last three years writing nightly, and having more abandoned, unfinished manuscripts than I care to admit to. I had to renew my association with the library. It was going against my nature not to do so. Once registered, I went looking for groups and events, and found ways to get involved. There's a writers group that meets on Tuesdays, and the Friends of the Library holds book sales monthly and needs regular volunteers for those. I think I have finally found the right avenue to meet like-minded people.

I think back to the first couple house deals we ever made, how little I knew of the closing process. We got a contract, then over the course of a month some magic happened, and we showed up one day to transfer possession of keys. I really had no idea what needed to happen between contract and closing. Over the years, I started paying attention more, so that by the time we bought this house I had a much better handle on the necessary steps, but it still felt like we were just following directions from a checklist. The schedule was prepared for us. We called professionals when we were supposed to, signed forms sent to us, but we didn't have to figure it out on our own. Ever since school last fall, I've been a little nervous about slipping behind the curtain and being responsible for setting all those deadlines myself. There was still some mystery about the process even once I had passed my exams. Today I was granted access to a closer who talked me through every page in the closing documents, how it's prepared and who orders it. Many of these things were covered in class, but when it's all coming at you at once, a few important stacks of information never reach the right memory slots in your brain. Having it filtered out and focused on in a one-on-one situation was incredibly beneficial. Although I did get a little distracted halfway through when we discovered that we had both lived in Charleston, at different times. "Homesickness" aside, I learned volumes from this very patient woman.