My, oh my, oh my! I realize this is a very inelegant way to start the final reflection of this eye-opening course but I am finding it very difficult to manifest myself in any other way. Right now, at this moment of my life I am swamped in all directions. I have assumed my position as Head Librarian but because of complicated logistics I am still the IT Coordinator in what has been the start of a very stressful school year. While one teacher whines about sound distortions in YouTube, I discover that four grades worth of student information had never been entered into the library automation system and I can't seem to figure out which key opens which DVD cabinet while yet another disapproving teacher glances at me with an evil stare. Yet through all this not-so-gratifying chaos, I listen to the echoes of those wise musings of my classmates and instructor expressed in those electronic discussions full of the pliant wisdom that comes from experience and it soothes me. A media specialist has multiple roles and must learn to balance. The constraint of older days in which a librarian's focus was only books is gone forever. We must embrace technology and blend into classroom instruction, serve as guides and mentors to teacher and child alike, assume challenges that no librarians at any other period of history have assumed before. We mus innovate and collaborate continuously. Continuously.
So will my present "state of things" always be this frenzied? I hope not but even if this is so, I know now that a generous dollop of strength could be derived by acknowledging that there is a community of media specialists out there that are evolving day to day into academic champions at their schools, making that all important difference for students.
My hands will probably always be full of worries and harried tasks to be done. I will never achieve fortune or fame with this career path but I will rest peacefully at night knowing that my job is a most valuable one, and that, I believe, was my hunch at the beginning of the course but now has morphed into a solidly engrained truth that I proudly call my own.

Thank you, Mary Anderson!