BE BRAVE.
That’s the best advice I ever received. A colleague who was retiring told me that, some years ago.
What need would a librarian have for bravery, you might ask? Are our jobs that dangerous? Now I don’t want to write, here, about what I do at work every day, or what librarians as a profession do. Maybe the subject for another post, some time, if you ask me nicely. (Or you could Google it.)
But I digress. All I’ll say is, no, my job isn’t particularly dangerous. It’s definitely not physically dangerous. I spend most of my time at a desk. Sometimes, I suppose it can be a bit emotionally taxing, given that most of my job is about dealing with people. It can be intellectually challenging too (but I consider that a good thing).
So – bravery. Why would a fellow librarian tell another to be brave? Well, when she retired we were right in the middle of that time in the noughties when everyone was talking about Web 2.0. Wikipedia (librarians were aghast at the audacity of it all – mere people, thinking they could write an encyclopedia?). The term social media hadn’t even been coined yet. Some of my colleagues were saying things like “I don’t do technology” or “Who has the time to learn about all this new stuff?” (I was trying to tell them they needed to pay attention. Some still say those sorts of things today, but let’s not go there.)
My dear colleague said: “Be brave, Con. Keep learning. Keep trying new things. Keep going, don’t let the naysayers distract you. Be brave.”
I’ve never forgotten it, and it’s kept me going. Best advice ever. BE BRAVE.
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Yesterday’s challenge: “The best advice I ever received/heard.”