To put it bluntly, I was pretty nerdy in high school. I was not a nerd in the sense that I would dress up as Princess Leia for fun or had tape around the center of my glasses, I just really loved the academic part of school. When everyone else opted for multiple free-periods senior year, I petitioned to take more than the allowed number of AP classes. When everyone else was going out to whatever house party was happening that night, I spent hours in my kitchen sifting through seemingly never ending superlative votes for the yearbook. While the majority of the seniors in my class partied in Punta Cana for spring break, I stayed in Saint Louis and competed in the state championship for Mock Trial. This probably goes without saying, but not only was I a nerd in high school, I was by no means cool.
As you can imagine, this made being social pretty difficult for me. Not only was my schedule incessantly busy, but also my high school was like the ones you see in television teen dramas on crack. The students, females in particular, were constantly trying to out do one another in everything, so being the president of multiple clubs, captain of an athletic team, and senior editor of the yearbook did not really bode well for me making friends. But alas there is a haven for kids like me at every high school—that haven is the library. My love for libraries will never fade because it is the main reason I made it through high school remaining (albeit debatably) sane. My love for libraries stemmed from the fact that there is so much more to libraries than just books. I loved the library because of the head librarian, the friends I made there, and the inexplicable push the library gave me to be the best person I could be.
My first library friend was actually one of the librarians, Mr. Elliot. I was still trying to find my place freshman year, and I would see him around in the cafeteria and what not. Eventually, we became friends and I started going to the library just to talk to him. I would tell him about whatever problems I was having at school, if I was stressed out about a situation at home, or even if one of my friends had upset me. We rarely talked about books and mostly talked about life. Looking back on my four years in high school I would say I went to the library more times to talk to my confidant than to do research or check out a book. Talking to my librarian built the foundation of my love for libraries that continuously grew throughout every year of high school.
As I ventured into my sophomore, junior, and senior years, my circle of library friends expanded. It should have been more obvious and probably come sooner, but it was not until my junior year of high school that I had that “a-ha!” moment that kids who love school hang out in the one place where academia is on steroids: the library. I found my closest friends at the library. Whether we were working on a project together, cramming for an exam next period, or putting the finishing touches on a paper, there was an unspoken camaraderie that developed between each of us knowing that we were all there striving to succeed. This camaraderie carried over from the library to dinners at local restaurants like C.J. Muggs, heart-to-heart conversations about what was going on in each of our respective lives, and the connections that are carried throughout college to my hometown friends.
Maybe it was the camaraderie that I felt in the library that pushed me to want to succeed. It could have been my dreamy-eyed freshman self looking up to the seniors who always hung out in the library and seeing them all get into top twenty colleges. Possibly the fact that books surrounded me with infinite knowledge that I could obtain was what made me work hard in the library. Whatever it was, to this day when I walk into a library I am overwhelmed with the feeling that I am there to get work done and to become a smarter and better person.
I understand that not everyone has this feeling about libraries. Not everyone had a librarian that served as a guide through high school. Most students did not find their close group of friends at a grouping of desks in the library. I am sure not everyone gets a rush like I do when I walk through the doors of the library. And that’s fine. To some people, a library is, and will always be just books. But to me, a library will always be so much more.
I think your thesis is very clear both implicitly and explicitly, that libraries are underappreciated and your reasons why you appreciate the library. However, the way it is framed now it is difficult to argue against your own personal opinion and experience. Secondly, the three reasons seem to be sort of isolated and are never brought back to a bigger picture, thus making each paragraph seem a little overdramatized in some areas. I think that if you transition better, it could explain more to your readers who do not have the same experience. I do really like the personal touch on your easy and the casual tone in your opening paragraphs really do make your essay relatable and easy to read.
This essay has a nice conversational tone and overall it is well-written. I’m not sure if this is your intended thesis or not, but I do think the last sentence of your second paragraph is a prime candidate. You also do bring in opposing views when you acknowledge that other people may not feel the same way about libraries. I personally rarely go to libraries, but I was able to completely understand what you were trying to say. If you want to be able to focus more on libraries, you could cut out some of the background information in the first 2 paragraphs.
Darby, your essays are always really easy to read. I have always appreciated the fact that you don’t try too hard to add unnecessary flourish – instead you keep things clear and straightforward. I thought that the clarity of this essay was especially effective because I always knew exactly what you were talking about. I also though it was cool how you would connect each paragraph to the previous one through the use of the passage of time or the way one thing you really liked about libraries gave life to another aspect you really liked. I did feel as though the last paragraph was a little bit rushed. I know that we are supposed to consider opposite view points but I think it would be interesting to see how your essay would read if you put more of an exclamation mark on it – maybe by highlighting more on what you already talked about in the body, but adding a little more insight. Overall good job!