The library was the first place where I remember feeling safe. Not only safe, but nourished.
It was a place I could go and find out the answer to the unknown. Using the card catalog to search for the answers to my questions was vastly preferable to the questions being met with, “Not now,” or “Why do you need to know that?” or, most often, a hurried, “What?”
I always felt like a burden. Like something to be dealt with. And I’m not telling you that now to try to garner sympathy because I do not care about that. I’m telling you so that maybe if you catch yourself doing these same things to people you love, you take a pause and rethink your reaction because small things add up. Pile on a huge thing or two, and that’s a recipe for a VMB (very messy brain.)
This is sounding preachy, and I hate that the most, so just keep this in mind: Before snap-reacting, take a breath and really think, ” What is this reaction accomplishing?” If the answer is “to get this person to shut the heck up,” then your solution is to simply say, “I am busy at the moment, but I can make time for that later,” and then move on.
Oh, but back to the library. I loved it, and it loved me: a match made in heaven. After rifling through the card catalogs, I’d leave with a stack of books so high that no one could see the secret smile plastered to my face.
When I moved to a different city near the end of middle school, I missed the librarians as much, if not more, than my friends. They were the ones who gave me the knowledge I craved and taught me about worlds unlike mine–some were so fantastical that they broke my little brain (looking at you, William Sleator).
But most importantly, they showed me that there were other people like me in the world, that I wasn’t the solo weirdo I always thought.
Even today, I’ve remained a reader. It was my inability to focus on a book long enough to read that spurred me to finally go to therapy… which changed my life and the way I interact with the world. I knocked it out of the park with my first therapist and haven’t found one that’s come close since.
When I joined the Historical Commission in my little town, I had big dreams of uncovering the mysteries of this small Midwest City. Last year, I saw a glimmer of this come to reality with a small pop-up history museum at our annual summer celebration.
I also got to know the local librarian pretty well cause that’s where the commission did most of our planning. One of my other early projects was creating merch so that we could start to raise money to maybe have a lil museum one day.
I made stickers:
These stickers are sold at City Hall and the library, and let me be honest… the library is far more skilled at moving these cuties.
Our town celebrated 100 years last year, and our library is celebrating 75 years this year, and they wanted to join the celebration.
So, they asked me to design them a new logo. She said they couldn’t pay much if anything, but I didn’t care. This was a dream I didn’t even know I had until the words came out of her mouth!
I’m in love with the building. It’s mid-century modern inside and out, and I am really drawn to the crispness of it all.
I knew I wanted to incorporate this feeling into the design, particularly the block lettering over the door.
The other thing I love about our library (aside from the books, book sales, and our incredible librarian) is the mural on the back wall. Painted by local artist Darin Martin, it perfectly captures the feeling of springtime in Michigan.
So, yeah, I wanted to include that, too. I mean, look how cute this thing is!
I’m not gonna lie, y’all. This took literally months. First, I just vomited out a bunch of designs, some which I loved and some which I felt “eh” about. I even kept some of the designs I hated because not everyone’s vision aligns with my own. Then I took a big, deep breath and sent them off to the library team.
And then we had a lot of rounds of back and forth. When we were getting close to the finish line I did the unthinkable (for me at least) and scheduled an in-person meeting.
Then I got to a portion with the fitness of the cardinal and the placement of the words that I just couldn’t get through on my own. I wasn’t worried though… I have a secret weapon in place for occasions such as this.
He’s one of the funniest (and most intelligent and talented) folks that I know and his name is Christian. 75% of the time, he puts the final polish on my favorite projects. And this one is no excection.
It’s surreal as hell to see this on an actual Library Card. Not just any Library Card, though, but the one I get to use to check out whatever books my heart desires.
I’m tickled. I’m thrilled.
