Meet the Librarian

My name is Lauren Stevens, and I was not always a future librarian. In fact, I was pretty far from it up until exactly two years ago. This is the story of how a creative professional decided she wanted to become a school media specialist.

I once had the dream of becoming a film editor. I would blog short videos of myself with my flip cam and used them for my resume. That blog landed me interviews for editing jobs all over from NYC to London. Eventually, I decided to take an entry-level gig down in Virginia Beach as a researcher for a television production company that produced true-crime shows for Investigation Discovery Channel. I had a fairly difficult time in the television industry. I think it was the fact we were always trying to shock people into seeing the darkness in the world, but I would rather cheer them up. On a whim, I bought a professional camera, took a few classes and some very low paying gigs before driving my Jeep across the country to San Diego, CA. I was armed with new dreams of becoming a wedding photographer somewhere on a beach.

As a freelance photographer starting out, I got my first "gig" photographing the guests who came to the Safari Park in Escondido. I became pregnant with my son, and I found myself running up hills with a giant belly in the hot California desert, chasing zip liners flying through fields of giraffes and rhinoceroses. After my son was born, I decided not to head back to that job. Instead, I took my next freelance job photographing newborn babies in four different hospitals. Being in southern California, some of the new parents didn't speak English, and I learned on the fly how to communicate with them using common hand gestures and body language. I remember feeling a spark as I worked with people regardless of a communication boundary. The non-English speaking patients began with little to no understanding as to why I was approaching them in their hospital room right after they had a baby. By the end, they were buying my product and gesturing thanks for the photographs that they would be able to cherish forever.

Remember that dream I had about photographing weddings on the beach? Well as life happened, that opportunity presented itself to me. I suddenly found myself in Oahu, Hawaii. I became a freelance photographer working for a company located in the breezy hallway of a gorgeous beach resort in the sandy lagoons of Ko'Olina. I know, right? I still tear up at the memory. It was here that I started to find my rhythm. I learned to surf, I was meeting amazing people, I became immersed in a new culture, I was doing my craft every day, and I had this beautiful light growing in my heart for living on this island.

But something was still missing.

I began to wonder if there was a way to work with people without having to sell them something. I would rather help others light up at the chance to become who they were meant to be. 'How could I do that,' I began to wonder. I thought that maybe if I could take my passion for working with people, working with technology, and using my communication skills to the education realm, perhaps I could finally become who I am meant to be. That's when I learned about the iSchool at Syracuse University. I entered the Library and Information Sciences in School Media program with zero education background, so needless to say I was somewhat intimidated. However, the moment I met my classmates who were fellow library haunters like me, I knew I found my people. When I entered my first school library to do my fieldwork, I thought, "This is it. The job that will make me say things like, 'If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life.'"

If you're rolling your eyes, I understand that the job won't always be easy. The challenge it brings me when I am tasked with coming up with a lesson plan, like the one I created on how to use statistics to make life decisions, or writing up a grant proposal for a VW-van-turned-Bookmobile drives me to succeed. Thank you so much for reading my adventure into librarianship. There are so many more adventures to come, so as I tell my Transformer Rescue Bot loving son, "Let's roll!"