Being always gracious

Today Dr. Carla Hayden is nominated to be our 14th Librarian of Congress, an incredibly smart and talented librarian dedicated to inclusivity. Also today was the official announcement of Open eBooks, a initiative that opens up free and easy eBook access to children and lays the technical foundation for making access to ebooks easier for everyone through the LibrarySimplified project (and many other things). These are both great strides towards a more democratic society and bring greater equal opportunity towards access to knowledge, and it’s great to see these things manifested in an area so close and so important to me.

On a personal note, today is the half-year anniversary of me working at NYPL, which I am thoroughly honored to do every day. Even on days where I’m scared that I don’t know what I’m doing, even on days when my neck hurts from poor desk-sitting activities, even on days when I disagree with someone or something. I feel so grateful to be working in this field I love and knowing that the work I get to do benefits everyone from my fellow librarians and archivists to every person who has open internet access. I’m so grateful to earn a living wage — and beyond that, a (what I consider to be a very) comfortable wage doing what I love and for that which I love, to support not only myself but two little living-breathing-snacking monsters.

Beyond this, I get to work on several open source projects and with organizations that shape the future of audiovisual preservation, something that causes a joy I feel deep down, from the 12-year-old person I once was.

Beyond that, I know so many wonderful, kind, and caring people, both professionally and personally, that make me a more well-balanced and better person every day. I can’t imagine not living in New York because I can’t imagine not having them, nor can I imagine not having access to instant messaging and instant communication with some of my closest friends who live far away.

I just feel so privileged to be able to do these things and to have this life and I hope I can continue working on helping others have the same. Especially health, being healthy is a privilege often forgotten unless the risk of its loss is immediately in front of you.

To be candid, I hadn’t been having a great time recently. (Hint: You can be grateful and still feel bad or tired or unhappy.) It wasn’t a lack of appreciation for all that I have, but maybe from focusing on some less-than-great things and working towards the personal recovery needed to move past them, which is normal and purely requires time and rest (and maybe more). But in the end, I am happy and I am healthy, and for that I am endlessly, endlessly grateful.