SOLC 2014 Day One: Deep breath, here we go!

This is my second Slice of Life Challenge, and I'm not exactly sure why I'm doing this again.  The feeling I have right now is similar to when I was pregnant for the second time--excited to be having another child, but fully aware that at some point the labor pains are going to start, and experience has told me that it will hurt!  I went back and read my final post on March 31, 2013; I wrote not once, but twice, that writing is hard work.  Something about the challenge must suit me, though, because here I am again at my keyboard, rushing to get words on the page before my obligations start pushing me out the door.

For inspiration, I took a peek at the SOLC Pinterest board of challenge images, and came across this blog by Jaana, who is a weekly Slicer (wow!).  I love her sermon-inspired thoughts on "finding what you are made for", because my current life situation is much different than it was at this time last year.

Last March 1st, I was in my third year back in the classroom after a seventeen year gap between teaching gigs.  On the one hand, I was just finding my groove again, new confidence in my abilities and really seeing progress in my special education classroom.  In my other hand, I held a ten-month-old degree in Library Science that I was itching to use.  Six interviews at six different schools in three different districts had come and gone, with lots of positive feedback and near-hirings--but no circulation desk to call my own.

This March 1st, I am deep into my twenty-first year in education, and the eighth month as the librarian of an elementary school of 900+ students in my district.  I can honestly say that I have "found what I am made for", at least for the time being.  I have been so well-received by my new colleagues, and have found clarity in purpose in this position (even if that clarity is not echoed by the state of my work desk!).  I have a feeling that my tasks as a newbie book-pusher/ information literacy educator/ staff support person will give me plenty of fodder for this coming month's posts.  Hoping some of those posts will resonate with my readers!

Let the challenge begin!