[Fast forward: left Maine for Minnesota where I completed a year as a AmeriCorps volunteer, delivering on the promise. Worked in an elementary school to see if I would like teaching, and saw that I probably wouldn't. Went to South Korea for a month to work at an English language camp. Got accepted then enrolled at a university to become a master in library and information studies. A master, I say.]
Yes, so I finally figured out that maybe I should give librarianship a try. I started my first semester in the fall of 2001. Three classes stick out in my mind as the most valuable and interesting: a class on globalization (referred to here), a class on evaluating children's literature, and a class on geographic representations of information in communications and information studies (i.e. the fun and foibles of maps).
Two brief memories related to the events of 9/11:
One, my initial response as I watched the news reports was: "What did we do now?" (Of course, nothing can justify such an attack, but at the same time I'm not blind to the fact that the U.S. has done far more than its share of dirty deeds.)
Two, during an evening class, a loud siren went off outside. The class must have looked petrified because the professor calmly reassured us that it was only a siren to warn boats to come in off the lake after sundown. The threat was minimal, but the fear was real and instantaneous...and a drop in the bucket compared to the fear people live in every day all over the world.
Technically, I turned 27 exactly two months after 9/11, but, not surprisingly, the events of that day loomed large and colored my education in the two years that followed. It was quite an interesting time to be learning about implications of globalization, information access, and freedom of information.
I cannot believe that this was all six years ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment