That must sound as if I were a pampered child and I suppose in many respects I was but I was now virtually alone in the world and dependent on me.
I had been working in Saturday and holiday jobs since I'd been about fourteen, beginning with a fruit and veg shop - where customers were served - and a waitress in a guest house doing mornings and evenings.
The first job I took, while looking for something that might make use of my qualifications, was again as a waitress but in a coffee shop by day. Jobs for a run-of-the-mill oceanographer were few and far between so when a job came up in the main library i applied for it.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency had just opened in Swansea and I applied for a clerical job there.
It wasn't until I'd accepted the job in DVLC that I was finally offered - and had to turn down - the library job.
I was thinking of this after my visit to the library yesterday, thinking about how much I love libraries. I would have loved to work there but if I had I would never have met Husband and my life would/could have been completely different.
I could be a spinsterly ex-librarian with cats now. (Not that all librarians are spinsters or love cats but that stereotype seemed about as far away from what I have become as it is possible to be.)
11 comments:
A lot of librarians were made redundant eventually. DVLC doesn't sound as interesting, although I know from my own work that computer programming does have it's own esoteric challenges and rewards.
Hello from this retired librarian, not a spinster, I was happily married with two sons and only one cat, plus one dog. It is interesting how each choice we make leads us in a certain way. Your choice led you to your husband and your life is very different because of your career choice.
It must have been the hand of fate that made the Library so slow in its hiring process!
Excellent personal essay --an art. I met my wife in a library in 1968. We are getting really serious and have 4 cats.
Funny how our lives take different turns. The library wasn’t for you obviously!
Life is really pure chance rather than planning, which is what makes it fascinating.
I can never imagine having had a different family and different children...
I worked in a library over 35 years ago, I loved it but moved into the corporate world after divorce, needed to earn more to support a mortgage. Always regretted leaving though.
Thanks all for your comments.
Ah, Liz, I worked in a branch of a relatively large city's library as a sophomore in high school - for the lofty sum of 35 cents per hour. While in my 30s, I served on our local (small city) public library's board of trustees for a few years - leading the group for two or three years - which positions were unpaid. In the first job, I must admit that the (all female) librarians were single; but, 20 years later, the (all female) librarians were married. My husband tells me that I am his librarian and brings research subjects to me. I don't know the significance of the difference, if any.
I would have gone boinkers had I tried to earn my living as a librarian. Winding up (in my late 30s) as an engineer definitely placed me in the right niche.
Cop Car
P.S. I agree with SmitoniusAndSonaata that life is chance. It was by chance that we were even born.
It certainly is, CopCar. Interesting how many of us have a libraries in our past in one way or another.
The universe guides us where we are supposed to be for good or no. And, who knows, maybe at some future time, you'll get to be a librarian.
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