When I first moved from Bangladesh to Brooklyn, nothing about my new life felt comforting. The bitter winter only made things worse. Fortunately, there was a public library right next to my new school. I often went there after class and would sit at the computer, aimlessly typing away, unsure how to use it. Eventually, I would get bored and wander over to the DVD section. “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” was one of the first movies I checked out. The Shire, with its lush greenery, reminded me of the life I had lost when I immigrated to the United States. I lived vicariously through the Hobbits. By the end of 4th grade, I began regularly borrowing books. I became obsessed with the “Henry and Mudge” series. I remember carrying around ten of them at a time. The bond between Henry and his dog, Mudge, was something I found truly inspiring.
Even though my family moved the summer after I finished 5th grade, I was fortunate enough to live just 0.2 miles away from another public library. For the next three years, I spent every Saturday at that library, enjoying quality time with my classmates. Through the summer reading program, much like the one at this library, I was introduced to the first novel I truly loved: “That Was Then, This Is Now”, by S.E. Hilton. Over the years, I would often re-read the last two pages of that novel; it resonated with me because I was projecting all my loved ones I left behind in Bangladesh onto the character. By the time I was in high school, the libraries had foreign films, particularly Bollywood. Watching 3 Idiots was life changing, as it gave me so much excitement for college.
In college, when I learned about the Interlibrary Loan system, I would ask my professors for the syllabus before the semester started and submitted interlibrary loan requests a week prior to the start of the semester, so I could have the books by the time we began reading them for class. I got many of my scholarly articles for my writing class through Academic Search Premier, a database that is available to you as well.
In my third year of college, my best friend, who had just graduated, shared her struggle with finding a job. After months of searching, she began narrowing her options based on her core values. This made me reflect on my own career goals. I asked myself what I enjoyed doing for fun and realized that I spent a lot of time in libraries and would love to work in one.
To give myself a head start, I volunteered at my college town public library, which ended up helping me land the job at my college library. When I graduated, I mostly applied to library jobs all over the country. It was a coincidence that I was in the library when someone announced he would be available for resume and cover letter writing, which is a service you also have via Brainfuse. He polished my resume and cover letter. Weeks later, I got that job!
After pursuing a Master’s in Higher Education, I began the job search. As luck would have it, I happened upon a job posting for a position in Adult Services at Princeton Public Library and was compelled to apply. When I walked into the library for the first time for my interview, it felt like coming home. I was struck that, while higher education was a big part of my journey to a new life in the U.S., that journey had also led me to discover a place where I feel I truly belong.