My Day at the CRPL

Well, it wasn't really at the downtown library, but at the Westdale branch. Because half of the shops in the mall are closed, the library had decided to pick up and move to a more central location not surrounded by darkened and unused space. They needed help, so 'I Pa'ipunaheleHau'oli and I went to see what we could do.

First, we parked on the wrong side of the mall, and when we got there we had to stand in a huge line. Then, the others in line told us we needed a release form, located within the library itself. Hau'oli went to get the forms, and after we filled them out we looked at the bottom: the form required a parent signature for anyone under 18 so that the library wouldn't be responsible for any injury thousands of books could create. We were worried because neither of us had thought to bring our moms and pops along, but the library workers didn't think it was a big deal. So we got to help out.

Our job? Become part of the massive chain of people stretching from one side of the mall to the other, passing carts of books to the new space and empty carts back to be refilled. It was so cool. Why? We got to go behind the scenes of Westdale Mall. I never knew there was so much back there: metal staircases, never-ending hallways, and small offices and rooms. Despite it's drab appearance from a normal mall-shopper's standpoint, the hidden areas were something to look at.

To top the day off, before we left, I saw my seventh grade language arts teacher (she had a quote in the article). To put it simply, she was the best grammar, punctuation, capitalization teacher I have ever had. She knew her stuff (and would get into heated debates with the other teachers, always winning), could sniff out a piece of watermelon gum being chewed in her classroom (and would hunt it out), and could tell the most dramatic stories (of squirrels making a plunge to the earth from a hundred feet from the ground and surving, for example). Seeing her reminded me of how much I had learned and how much I had forgotten from her class (what were those five words that ended in -o that needed an -es as opposed to just an -s at the end when they became plural?). But all in all, it was great to see her again.

When leaving, Hau'oli and I ended up getting lost trying to find our way out of the secret behind-the-scenes Westdale. A few wrong staircases and some wrong turns sent us running through the empty hallways. After we had the common sense to turn around and go where we came, we made it out unscathed and alive.

The volunteering wasn't too hard and I had a good time. I always have more fun when I am helping because I want to, not because I am paid or forced. I suppose that's a good thing; to feel good just for doing good. Still, I wish that I could enjoy my jobs, but that would probably involve me not getting a paycheck. Bummer, I suppose I'll just have to stick to doing a little bit of each.