Has a library changed your life?

     Once in a while, I get the chance to read other websites and blogs.  Today I clicked on ilovelibraries.org, a place that I find interesting since it's library-related.
     I read the article "How a library changed my life" by a young woman from India.  And it got me to thinking.
     Has a library changed my life?  And has changed your life?
     When I was growing up, I don't remember my mother or father taking me to a library.  I remember reading lots of books, but I don't really remember where I got my reading material.  Except, of course, for what we called "funny books," comics later, graphic novels now.
     So, I must have taken home books from my school library.
     As I look back over my life, it must have been when I had my own children that the library became important.
     I know I read to them, especially at nap time.  And later with the younger ones, anytime we could sit down together on the couch and share even the comics of the Sunday paper.
     So, when did the library really change my life?  When did books, and reading materials, and the quietness of a place to sit and read, really enter my life?
     I seem to remember every time I moved to another city, which was after I married, I sought out the local library.  Some were very small, pieced together by the faithful few who cared about books and  people reading.  Some were large city libraries; the kinds with long, marble steps up to the double-wide doors and big open foyers.
     A small one was in the city of Ralston, Nebraska.  It was all on one floor for the public; storage in the basement.  It was actually one big room, divided by what I then called bookshelves, now call stacks.  (But I understand we're going back to the user-friendly word bookshelves.)
    A really big library was in Dallas, Texas; a place where it was easy to get lost and where it was difficult to find the restrooms.  That was then, however.  I'm sure their signage has improved that problem.
     As I moved, I frequented the libraries even more.  They became an obsession to find, to visit, to sit in and enjoy just being there.  I not only went to read, but to write and to get away into a quiet space for an hour or two.
     College libraries, oh yes.  There were even those.  In fact, I remember working at a college bookstore and envying those with the time to pick out various books they were required to read and actually having the time to read them!
     I guess a library really changed my life when I went to work at one in a small Illinois town.  It was a Dale Carnegie library...had the round dome and everything.  It was a two story building.  The main library was on the upper floor (up those marble steps, you see).  The children's library and a large meeting room was in the basement.  I was hired to straighten and clean the books and shelves, and to help patrons return their books and check out new ones.  And one week, when the cleaning lady was sick, I was paid to clean the entire library, top to bottom (that included the bathrooms).  Yes, maybe that was when a library changed my life.
     I not only checked out books from that library to read, but I checked out their videos and magazines; I went to meetings in the large meeting room in the basement; I sat at the tables in the main library and wrote stories; I snooped through all the old donated books; and I used one of their three computers when I got curious about something I couldn't find in a book.  I also became an advocate for the library.
     Then I moved from Illinois to where I am now and knew that I wanted to work at the Moultrie-Colquitt County Library.  Of course, I didn't have a degree in Library Science, but I had other talents and skills I could offer.  So, I applied.  And one day I was hired.  And today, here I sit.
     It was the best move of my life.  I feel I'm where I belong, where I've always loved, where I've always wanted to be.  In a library.  And this is a good one, a really good one.
     Did a library change my life?  I believe so, in more ways than I could put down right here.
     So, I take every opportunity I have to tell others in our community to visit our library...their library.  It may change their lives also.
     Now, how about you?  Do you have a story to share?  Has a library changed your life?  Why not share it with us here?  I'll be watching for you.