Head Tale

I’d been a patron of Regent Place library in Regina long before I ever applied for library school, let alone before I applied to be the Branch Head there.

So when I went in for the interview, I laid it on pretty thick about how I was involved in the community, how my son went to the local school and played sports in our neighbourhood, how my wife worked in the area, etc. etc.

But then, after I started the job, a funny thing happened…

I realised I hadn’t really been exaggerating that much.  I kept seeing people I knew in my library that I knew from other areas of my life – University, other jobs, volunteering, politics and so on.

I’m more accustomed to it now but it still hits me sometimes – when I see one of my Muslim patrons at a gas station near where Pace takes parkour classes and he’s surprised that I recognize him, when I see one of my regular patrons working at the deli counter of my local grocery store, when I see one of my young “Regent Regulars” shopping with their parent at the shopping mall.

Or on nights like tonight when Pace and I went to his school’s “Family Fun Night” (Shea and Sasha stayed home as Sasha’s been sick since last weekend) and I saw a number of people I know from the library – a woman that I regularly proctor exams for, another woman who comes in with the daycare that she works at, a young girl who comes in with her grandma every week…on and on.

But maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised – Regina’s a small town and if we’re six degrees of separation from everyone else on earth, we’re probably one degree of separation from everyone else in Regina.

And the connections never stop – the Vice-Principal who Pace is capturing with a hoop in the above photo?  From the area where Shea grew up in rural Saskatchewan.