Finding Appalachia

A little backstory: when I originally moved to Oklahoma, it was for a relatively high paying Deputy Library Director position in a small city about an hour commute from where I now live. The position and salary were befitting someone with over a decade of professional librarian experience and were on par with what I had been earning in Federal civil service. A year later, I found myself expecting my daughter while working a demanding job and commuting two or more hours a day. My husband and I decided we needed to make a change that would be more beneficial to our family structure. I would step off the gas in my career and take a salary cut to be closer to home, working in our very small town.

This change took place at a time when other individuals were experiencing record wage growth. The small city I left gave wage and salary increases across frontline, mid-level, and executive workers shortly after I left causing me to feel as though I missed out on a large compensation jump while simultaneously taking what amounted to a 25% salary cut plus the loss of a substantial benefits package.

After two years of feeling under-compensated and left out of the booming labor economy, I decided that I would venture out and try my hand at corporate America. An opportunity recently came across my LinkedIn page for a librarian to be a member of a sales team, specifically to sell to academic libraries. The sales librarian would train academic librarians and faculty members on how to use the company’s products in order to convince them to purchase new services or retain existing services. It sounded like an exciting opportunity to leverage my years of adult library instructional experience in the corporate world. And prove to myself that I was worth more on the private market than what I am currently making.

Unfortunately, after just the first round interview with the recruiter, I received a standard rejection email. “Thank you for your time…” Perhaps this opportunity was simply not meant to be and I should rework my resume, polish my interview skills, and keep trying.

Or I can be grateful. Grateful that what seems like a kick in the teeth was a wake up call to refocus on what matters. Money is nice to have for sure. But my husband and I are not hurting. Despite being lowly librarians, we should be able to comfortably retire in our 50s while also fully funding our daughters education. I do not need the money. What I do need is the time.

Time with my daughter. I can pick her up everyday when I leave work promptly at 4:30 pm right now, and I have Fridays off in the summer.

Time with my husband. We eat lunch together almost every single day.

Time with my community. I just started volunteering with my husband’s squadron.

Time to travel. We are going camping next month and have lots more planned for the summer.

Time to heal. I am finally getting surgery on my nasal passages and sinuses.

So, stop and smell the roses if you can. Be grateful for all the little things you have and make the time to just live.