Happy New Year 2019

Last night was New Year's Eve and although I remained warm and dry watching the very wet, rainy festivities in Times Square on television I did stay up way too late even beyond seeing the ball drop. Today is a day to start putting Christmas 2018 away and get ready to return to school tomorrow. It's always hard to set that alarm once again for 5:30 am but once I get back to school the past eleven days become a distant memory. The crowd of students waiting at the door to enter the library to get library passes for the day will be bigger than usual since we did not give out passes for January 2, 2019 before leaving on December 21, 2018. Students come to the library for many reasons. Some come to meet up with friends. Some come to do schoolwork or read. Some come just to have a comfortable, safe place to spend some time. Some students are easier to connect with than others and I look forward to seeing the "library regulars" return. On Sunday, at mass, I sat three rows behind a family. Part way through the mass I realized that one of the boys was a library regular. This boy was in the library every day last year when he was a freshman. He comes a bit more sporadically this year but he does still come. Although I know his name from seeing him regularly, he is not a student that I have developed a close relationship with. He is polite and quiet and mostly works alone on schoolwork. Sometimes when I meet students outside of school I'm not sure what their reaction will be. Some students may not want to acknowledge that they know the school librarian. Others are very vocal in recognizing me in the "real world". So as I passed by this student in church I glanced his way and had to smile when he looked up in surprise and gave a shy smile and a little wave. Yes, it truly is the students that keep me going back! Happy New Year!