Returning to College

Why I finally decided to go back to school and seek a library technical assistant certificate.

Starting in late August, I started doing something I’d been hesitant to do for several years: going back to school.

Because I still work full time, I’m not back on a full schedule, as I’d been before, but am instead just taking one class for the semester. The class I’m taking is Introduction to Libraries and the Information Age, which I’m taking with the goal of getting a certificate to be a library technical assistant.

The class isn’t a lot of hard work. We don’t have to use a textbook, and most of the reading material and resources will be through articles and online sources. We don’t even have to do the quizzes that we can find through Blackboard because our professor doesn’t like the way they’re worded and finds them to be unnecessary. What we will be doing is looking into the librarian profession as well as general library work, learning a bit about the history of libraries, visiting at least two libraries during the year, going over current events that are impacting libraries in the United States, looking into job openings at different libraries, getting in contact with librarians in our area, and then completing a final project on a subject of our choice related to libraries.

Within the class, I seem to be one of the only returning adult students, with most people in the class appearing to be younger students. Another student who was a returning student shared that she’d majored in History and had come to realize that this degree doesn’t help make money, and so she returned to school to enter the library program. I’ve previously heard that this is the case with many students in this program, but while this isn’t the case with everyone in my class, many of those in my class expressed an interest in doing archiving in the future, while there’s at least one student that already works in a library, so many do have special skills or interests within the field early on.

I’d been interested in taking this way back when I started attending community college eleven years ago. In fact, I intended it to be one of the first five classes I’d take during my first semester of college However, a counselor convinced me that it’d be a better idea to take four classes instead of five, so I no longer took the library course, thinking I’d take it later. However, several years passed, and I didn’t sign up for the class because I kept thinking I’d major in something else. After having success with publishing some poems in the college literary magazine, I became interested in being an English major, taking several classes within the English department along with most of my general education courses and some business classes upon thinking that I might also major in business. I did all of this while being highly involved on campus, doing work for both the literary magazine and the student leadership council in addition to other clubs.

But several things prevented me from going to a four-year school. The first was the fact that I couldn’t get a regular job outside of school. I sometimes send in applications, but I rarely got called in for interviews, or I’d do poorly in them if I managed to get one. Once, my parents didn’t let me go to an interview for a job at the Dollar Store because they were convinced that I wouldn’t be able to do the job well enough. Also, I didn’t do well enough in one of my math classes, so I wasn’t able to take any of the math courses that were required for the associate of arts degree. Because of all this, I ended up graduating with an associate in general studies after four years of community college, and I decided that I’d focus on working after graduation with the possibility of going back to school in the future.

And once I’d been working for several years, the pandemic occurred, causing cuts in work and many students to have to do remote learning. After hearing a bit about how difficult it was for students during that time, I became even less interested in going back to school, and I even declared this to others at least once. However, I’d sometimes wonder if I’d be better off if I did. I knew I’d have to make certain adjustments to my schedule, meaning less free time if I wasn’t at work, but there could still be certain benefits, mainly obtaining a job that paid slightly better and which I’d have more interest in.

Last year, I’d given some thought to going back to school after remaining at my current full-time job for a full year, but what held me back was that I was going on vacation to Paris for a week at the time in which classes would begin. And this summer, we started experiencing several changes in the store where I work, including the removal of the designer shop where I’d often assist customers for at least two hours during certain workdays. Because of this, I’m now just cleaning up the different clothing sections of our store every day, with very few chances to interact with customers regularly. This has caused me to get more bored with the work I’m doing, and more willing to move on to a different job in the future, resulting in me finally being willing to pay the nearly $450 required for me to sign up for a 3 credit course of my local community college, and I signed up for Introduction to Libraries and the Information Age, the class I’d originally considered taking 11 years before.

So now, I’m taking the class every Tuesday from late August until December, and I’ll wait and see just what opportunities taking this class will soon grant me. Perhaps it won’t pay as well as other professions, but I’ll still be on track towards getting a job in an area I enjoy if all goes well. I have several of the same concerns I had before taking the class, including whether simply having the certificate won’t be enough to obtain a desirable position and salary and how difficult it might be to try to obtain a master’s to advance to a higher position.

However, because I’m now 30, I understand that I must start getting my life on track and making decisions towards what I want to continue doing later. I started this when I was 28 upon getting my first full- time job, so I view taking this class as the next step. I’d still like to see about getting my writing officially published, but I understand that I can’t afford to make this my only goal either. Getting into publishing is difficult, so I must have other work to fall back on as I continue trying.

So whatever happens as a result of taking this class, whether I go directly into a library assistant position, get a job handing archives, or obtain some sort of office work, at least I’ll be obtaining some professional skills while also gaining a better understanding of a librarian’s job that goes beyond stereotypes such as simply helping you find books and hushing noisy kids. As their work is currently being challenged across the country, more people are noticing that what they do is something we may need more of now than ever before, and by entering this field of work, perhaps I can make as much of a difference as I can through my writing.