When I was in library school, one of the things that happened at the start of each semester was a mixer with current students and the new crop of future librarians.
I remember one of these sessions on the patio of the Grad Club when I ended up sitting next to Barb Janicek. She struck me as very focused as she asked questions about what library school was like, what was need to succeed and so on.
I did my best to answer while also engaging with her other classmates at the table (while also trying not to be *too* engaged with one who shall remain nameless but that dominated the conversation with tales of their youthful indiscretions) 😉
Barb became one of my closest friends at library school, won the Spirit of Librarianship award like I had and even took Shea and I back to her home stomping grounds so we could take in the Kitchener-Waterloo edition of Word on the Street that fall.
After convocating, she accepted a position as a Children’s Librarian with Saskatoon Public Library and though most of our communication was still by phone, e-mail and Facebook, I was always happy to know that such a stellar librarian had come to our province.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t to last. A Children’s Librarian position opened up back in Ontario and she moved back to be closer to family, friends and her hometown.
We’d stayed in regular contact (mostly Facebook) but I was fairly surprised by a post a few months back (?) where Barb proudly announced that she’d lost over 100 lbs!
She recently followed that up by announcing that, as part of her ongoing efforts to maintain this new lifestyle and keep herself accountable, she’s going to be blogging about her weight loss and various other related topics – obesity, exercise, diet and so on.
The blog is at: www.MyGutTellsMe.com. I’d encourage you to check it out!
