Recreating Who I Am – Third Place Winner in the Midwestern Region Blog Contest

By: Rebecca Graham

At 30 years old, I am in the middle of a great recreation of my life.  Eleven years ago, while working my way through obtaining my associate’s degree, I fell into a position in medical billing.  I liked it well enough and I was good at it; it hardly occurred to me that it wasn’t actually what I wanted to be doing with my life. One evening while watching Wallstreet: Money Never Sleeps with my husband, we began a conversation that would begin the process of recreating my life.  My husband asked me that classic question: What would you do if money was no object?  I responded immediately: I would open a bookstore.  What could be better than spending my days around books? Buying them, selling them, recommending them, talking about them – it sounded heavenly.  This, of course, is a huge risk in real life, considering the profitability of bookstores in the current market, not to mention your livelihood depends on authors writing good books that people want to buy, and that is completely out of your control.  My husband suggested that I could be a librarian, then I could have all the joy of the bookstore without any of the financial risks.

This idea percolated in my mind over the subsequent months; each time I felt trapped at my desk doing a job that left me feeling unfulfilled and frustrated, I would hear my husband’s voice suggesting I should be a librarian. I spent my free moments during those months researching what librarians actually did, the education requirements and job prospects.  I quickly found that there was a lot more to it than making book recommendations; librarians run community programs, help with research projects, and teach a whole range of skills.  There was one quote in particular that really sealed my fate:

Now, here I am, still working full-time in that same medical billing position, but also working toward completing my bachelor’s in English, planning my honor’s thesis, and looking at graduate schools with MLIS programs.  I am, literally, counting the months (20 to go!) until I can leave my office for the final time, pack my bags and head off toward a new future.  This particular recreation is a long process, but it is leading to a whole new life, and I am very excited about the future.