Making Lemonade Out of Lemons

Last week I read Lora Kloth's post on SLA's Future Ready 365 blog titled, Know Thyself and Drink Lemonade and it inspired me to write today's blog entry for DALL.

Like Kloth three years ago my position as a Library Specialist at a global law firm came to an abrupt end. I had mixed feelings of frustration, anxiety, depression and fear because it was during that time our economy was going through chaos due to the economic crisis. Though I was out of work, it allowed me to focus on my studies full-time during the semester.

After being unemployed for six months, I was offered and accepted a position as a Librarian I at a local community college campus in the Dallas area. I saw it as opportunity to learn a different realm of librarianship, particularly in academia. Even though it is considered a community college library, we are open to the public too. With my background in the legal field, I contributed to the staff on collection development in selecting resources in the main collection. I was able to teach students about information literacy who were not familiar with library information and resources for their studies using the catalog and databases along with understanding bibliographic citations for their research paper.

During my time with the college, I still kept in touch with DALL members and attended some events. While I was at a DALL luncheon earlier this year, it really hit me that I really missed working in the legal field. I believe my true calling is to work in the law librarian profession. Therefore, I began to attend more events, was nominated and accepted the position as Treasurer of DALL joining the Executive Board for the 2011-2012 year. In addition, I began to published entries for our organization's blog, utilizing my LinkedIn account to stay connected with others in the profession and established a Twitter account to stay on top of news, trends and updates in the legal, technology, knowledge management and competitive intelligence field.

As I think back on the past few years, at one time I saw myself as a failure due to the lost of my job. However, my current position gave me a boost of confidence, realizing I can work as a competent, efficient information professional. I soon realized that I wanted to come back to the legal profession and began to reinvent myself by becoming more involve in my organization.

"When life hands you lemons, make lemonade," in life we go through experiences that can shake our world. You question yourself and self-doubt looms over you with mixed emotions. Nonetheless, we can change our mindset by making a positive out of a negative and running this every changing marathon race called Life.