During my third year in Castleton, I was worried about how I was going to adapt to a small-time job to keep myself afloat. Growing up, I’ve seen how people always get excited about their first job and how much they expect it to be fun or enjoyable, but I never understood it. My reason as to why I never understood it was because I found jobs to be a necessary tool in order to put food on the table and not acquiring the right kind of fun I would like. I saw an opening position in Calvin Coolidge Library for circulation at the front desk and I figured it would be the right place to start.

I made sure to keep my expectations low about it because I didn’t want to disappoint myself. My reasons for why I took the library circulation job is because I wanted the experience and to help myself understand what it’s like working; though it may only be work-study, I figured it would be a good start to whatever I may be looking forward to. Though my expectations were low, my time doing circulation incredibly enjoyable in its own way, the first thing I was taught to do was to stock books into the shelves in the right order according to the Dewey Decimal System where I have to pay attention to the right numbers and letter associated to the number; if there was ever a mistake I made, I’m supposed to leave a orange slip with my initials so they know who placed what book in the wrong place. When re-stocking books has already been taken care of, I’m given tasks to deliver whatever books need to be removed from the library. I don’t specifically know what happens if there’s not a specific book in the library I’m supposed to recover, but if it’s not there then it’s no big deal.

Once restocking the books and recovering specific ones for the staff is finished, the only thing left to do while working is stick to the front desk where you help students and teachers check in and/or out any books they might need; the front desk helped me with my social skills personally because I’ve always had trouble interacting with people, but interacting with people

checking in and out of books allowed me to be more interactive and show my best self. Sometimes taking a first job can be scary, but if you give it enough thought and think about the set of skills you have, you’ll be able to find the right one and have fun of your own with it; there’s nothing wrong with doing your job and having fun with it, and I found working circulation at the library was the most fun I’ve ever had.