Wednesday ...

[keladry_lupin]

My only educational accomplishment thus far was earning a technician's certificate at a junior college, about eighteen months ago. As an alumna of the school's library technology program who is gainfully employed -- and therefore considered a success story -- the teacher of the introductory class asked me and three other alumni to come and speak to her students about the program they started this term. What they can expect, what my own experiences were like, that sort of thing. This was the second time I've gone to speak to the n00bies; the same teacher invited me last term, too.

The library field is a weird thing; it typically attracts older people. (Maybe this isn't unique to the library field; I don't know.) But many of my classmates were closer to my parents' age than my own; I was one of two students in our twenties, for my first two semesters. Most were either embarking on a second career, after twenty years doing goodness-knows-what, or homemakers whose children are now in school and want to work outside the home again. (Librarians, on the other hand, are as often as not in their twenties when they earn their master's degrees. I'm talking support staff here.)

It took me a while to figure out why the experience of speaking to these students was so weird. It wasn't the public speaking; I speak almost every Sunday in front of a hundred women at church. Twenty library students is a piece of kelp. I wasn't even nervous -- before, during, or after. (I was antsy, but that was attributable to about six things that night.) What's odd is that here I was, part of a panel of alumni, and I was the youngest person in the room. No joke, everyone else present was at least forty. It felt weird to be the kid in the room and be the one teaching. I answered questions, told them what to expect in the coming semesters, why I liked the program, and gave advice on their internships and job hunts. It was one of those "holycowthisisweird" moments. I often joke and say that I'm a grown-up now, because I have my own work e-mail address, my own phone extension, and my own desk in my own cubicle. But this just felt a little surreal, somehow.

Class went well, though. Got a 50 (out of 50) on my term paper for astronomy. Had a nice chat with Professor Cutie-Pie after class, made him laugh, which is always an accomplishment.