When it all is said and done I guess you can say that I got tired of the path I was on in public libraries.

After so many years in Youth Services, I felt like I had achieved any personal professional goals that I had set for myself during my times in New Jersey, Maine, and finally Chattanooga. I was part of three teams that tried some amazing stuff. A lot of that stuff worked, some didn’t, and all along the way I got to be in great communities and meet some great kids (who are now most excellent adults). After Haley and I welcomed Finn & Aero into our family it just felt like it was time to move away from hanging around in youth libraries where I’d funnel all of my energy towards those kids and how they interacted with the public library. Your energy shifts when you welcome kids into your family and all of a sudden that limitless energy you think you had now has a cap on it and there’s only so much. I chose to give that energy to my family instead of public libraries.

I got bit by the management and leadership bug while I was in Chattanooga. I was given a lot of neat opportunities there to put together a space where the community and the staff would come together and do neat things. One of the things that I found that I really enjoyed was finding people who would then come together as a team and do great things for the community. The first person there was Megan Emery and without her a great partnership/programme called EtsyNooga wouldn’t exist. After that came other members to the team and one by one we had a full functioning Youth Services floor full of people with ideas and energy. I just had to help find them, hire them, and say YES to most if not all of their ideas.

That was when I decided that I’d like to try out the library director thing. I found the Benson Memorial Library in Titusville, PA and for four years and four months I did my best to lead the library to a new level. I found out that level didn’t need to be as high tech or as fancy as the other public libraries out there. You didn’t need all the fancy and fun stuff that fills up so many of our library discussions. All you needed was a connection with the people you serve and the people you work with. I found out that the Benson Memorial Library just needed to be the Benson Memorial Library and function well for the community.

I learned a lot at the Benson Memorial Library. I didn’t do the right thing sometimes. I had to fuddle and find my way around the current muck and the years of history at that library. I didn’t sort it all out in my time there but I did my best. There are things I think I did well like connecting the community with the library and reinvigorating their interest in all things related to the library. There are things I don’t think I did well like help the staff grow professionally. I learned from the good and the bad. It’s all we can do as human beings here on Earth with everything that we are part of…we can try something and either get it right or wrong. The important thing is that we reflect and learn from each of those moments. Celebrate the wins and losses and use them for the learning experiences that they are.

It’s weird that I first came to New Zealand in November 2015, just a few months after I had settled in Titusville, PA in my new role as a director. I had the idea that I would like to live and work in New Zealand long before coming here, and that trip to the 2015 LIANZA Conference really showed me that this was something I would like in my life. I wanted to do it right then and there, but I knew I had to cut my teeth on some stuff at the Benson Memorial Library before I dove into not only moving to a new country but also learning how to work in a library in a new country. It took a little less than 4 years to get back to New Zealand, but here I am with my family. We live in Ngaio, a nice little village outside of downtown Wellington New Zealand. I work as a Team Leader for 2 public libraries and 4 community centres for the Wellington City Libraries. In my first two months here, I’ve grown to see the huge team at this library as an amazing group of individuals who are quick to adapt, change, grow, and do what’s best for the community. The people I’ve met here in New Zealand have a passion for their work and for their outside of work life, and somehow they’re all perfect at achieving this balance. I don’t know how they do it, but they do. It’s something I’ve yearned for in my own personal life for years and here now I am living in a country where they just GET that balance. This is the next step in my growth. I feel so lucky and fortunate to be here with all of these people in not only a community but a country that cares about each other, their physical, mental, and social wellbeing and wants to move into a positive and kind future. This must be the place. Home. Where I want to be.