December Days 2022 #3: Hoopy
Dec. 3rd, 2022 07:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradept[What's December Days this year? Taking a crowdsourced list of adjectives and seeing if I can turn them into saying good things about myself. Or at least good things to talk about.]
From the third chapter of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the Douglas Adams work,) an entry in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the in-universe, slightly cheaper alternative to the Encyclopedia Galactica) talks about a specific character and uses some galactic slang to describe him.
"Knowing where your towel is" turns out to be an essential part of galactic travel, and especially so for those who hitchhike their way around on various ships, as Ford will demonstrate to Arthur Dent all throughout the increasingly inaccurately named trilogy.
I appreciate the suggestion that I'm a particularly put together person, because the last several months have felt like anything but. The last several years have felt a little bit like things fraying here and there, but I've been holding it together. The last couple of months have felt like so many things that were under control have exploded and are actively fighting coming back under control. Life so many things in life, it was something small and petty that set it off, but it's been months of trying to figure out what my new reality is, how to recognize the signs of impending issues, what solutions might be for managing what is going on and what happens when those issues strike, and trying to still do good work through all of this.
A couple of days ago, however, one of the no longer teens that have come through the library came back in and asked to talk with me. We had a pleasant catching-up chat and he told me about his experience in the library as a teen, and it hit all the points of the "third space" concept that's been in vogue for libraries for years now. It was a safe space, with at least some staff who were trying to understand what being a teen was like while also having to enforce consequences on stupid decisions that got made by teenagers because they were teenagers. We talked a little bit more about how having a setup with a screen and a game console contributed to a bit of a party atmosphere in the teen section (which made apparent all of the very stupid architectural decisions around acoustics of the building), the general ineffectiveness of our noise moderation indicators (almost always "mysteriously" unplugged from the wall outlet because it was always set too low), and the dynamics of playing Smash Brothers (and the occasional surprise of getting your ass handed to you by the librarian, who definitely didn't have near as much practice time as the skilled teens.) I mentioned what I hoped the expansion space remodel would provide for the teen area, and left him with where to find the Foundation people in case he was interested in giving when that campaign eventually kicks off. And I told him to send any others he was in contact with my way as well.
It's one of those loop closure stories that's rare in the library world, because so many of our teens scatter to the four winds after we're done with them and we never know what happens. Assuming we haven't driven them away from the library with anti-teenager policies and staff decisions, some of which were (and are) definitely on display at my location. The ones that were failed won't come back, of course, but at least one of the ones we didn't fail came back to tell us about it. And to hear him describe it, I was pretty hoopy for many of them, too, even as I leaned hard into the idea that I am a naturally uncool and awkward adult and therefore both clueless and shameless at the same time. (And, occasionally, could kick their asses at something I had no right to be that good at, and while playing the random character selection to boot.) And today, the parents of one of my other teens gave me a life update: doing well in their chosen field, has a partner, wants to move back if there's a job with enough salary, and specifically asked after me and one of the other staff who have been there at least as long as I have about it.
Sometimes the universe decides to provide evidence when I press X to disbelieve positive claims about myself. Routinely in whatever method will make me look the most foolish.
- hoopy
- Really together person
From the third chapter of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the Douglas Adams work,) an entry in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the in-universe, slightly cheaper alternative to the Encyclopedia Galactica) talks about a specific character and uses some galactic slang to describe him.
"Hey, you sas that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is."
"Knowing where your towel is" turns out to be an essential part of galactic travel, and especially so for those who hitchhike their way around on various ships, as Ford will demonstrate to Arthur Dent all throughout the increasingly inaccurately named trilogy.
I appreciate the suggestion that I'm a particularly put together person, because the last several months have felt like anything but. The last several years have felt a little bit like things fraying here and there, but I've been holding it together. The last couple of months have felt like so many things that were under control have exploded and are actively fighting coming back under control. Life so many things in life, it was something small and petty that set it off, but it's been months of trying to figure out what my new reality is, how to recognize the signs of impending issues, what solutions might be for managing what is going on and what happens when those issues strike, and trying to still do good work through all of this.
A couple of days ago, however, one of the no longer teens that have come through the library came back in and asked to talk with me. We had a pleasant catching-up chat and he told me about his experience in the library as a teen, and it hit all the points of the "third space" concept that's been in vogue for libraries for years now. It was a safe space, with at least some staff who were trying to understand what being a teen was like while also having to enforce consequences on stupid decisions that got made by teenagers because they were teenagers. We talked a little bit more about how having a setup with a screen and a game console contributed to a bit of a party atmosphere in the teen section (which made apparent all of the very stupid architectural decisions around acoustics of the building), the general ineffectiveness of our noise moderation indicators (almost always "mysteriously" unplugged from the wall outlet because it was always set too low), and the dynamics of playing Smash Brothers (and the occasional surprise of getting your ass handed to you by the librarian, who definitely didn't have near as much practice time as the skilled teens.) I mentioned what I hoped the expansion space remodel would provide for the teen area, and left him with where to find the Foundation people in case he was interested in giving when that campaign eventually kicks off. And I told him to send any others he was in contact with my way as well.
It's one of those loop closure stories that's rare in the library world, because so many of our teens scatter to the four winds after we're done with them and we never know what happens. Assuming we haven't driven them away from the library with anti-teenager policies and staff decisions, some of which were (and are) definitely on display at my location. The ones that were failed won't come back, of course, but at least one of the ones we didn't fail came back to tell us about it. And to hear him describe it, I was pretty hoopy for many of them, too, even as I leaned hard into the idea that I am a naturally uncool and awkward adult and therefore both clueless and shameless at the same time. (And, occasionally, could kick their asses at something I had no right to be that good at, and while playing the random character selection to boot.) And today, the parents of one of my other teens gave me a life update: doing well in their chosen field, has a partner, wants to move back if there's a job with enough salary, and specifically asked after me and one of the other staff who have been there at least as long as I have about it.
Sometimes the universe decides to provide evidence when I press X to disbelieve positive claims about myself. Routinely in whatever method will make me look the most foolish.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-04 07:33 pm (UTC)I do get feedback at work in the form of compliments and thanks for helping people, and students being sent directly to me by staff around campus as "he's the most helpful". For someone without my MLS, that's pretty cool! Definitely makes me feel like I'm earning every bit of my $15/hr.
BTW, it's Encyclopedia Galactica, IIRC. Not to quibble too much. :-)
no subject
Date: 2022-12-04 09:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-06 05:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-06 08:00 am (UTC)