It was clear to me as early as the nighttime hours after I was back home from the graduation ceremony that something very special had happened over the past three years, like nothing before it, and nothing would quite be like it again in my life.
Yet in the time since, I've had extraordinary opportunities to reconnect with my Julian experience. One important experience has been Religious Education, as I seek to impart the great gift of faith to my middle school students that was stirred up in me significantly during my own middle school years.
I felt the presence of my Julian years in a particular way back in February on Presidents' Day. The Confirmation students of all the Oak Park Roman Catholic church communities went to pack meals at Feed My Starving Children in Schaumburg. Conveniently, it was scheduled after my typical clock-out time at work and I was already about halfway there. So I got in Avila and headed straight for the packing site. The packing stations have a special sealing machine and the FMSC guidelines state that the machine should be used by someone 18 or over. When I'm there, I typically let the students go to their places and then find somewhere I can jump in to assist with the sealing machine. After letting the students take their places, as I walked around for a packing station, a couple of students I know from RE class flagged me down and asked me to work with them.
While we were at work, it dawned on me that all the students at that table were current Julian students, and here I was, a Julian alumnus, collaborating with them. It was a very special moment to reconnect with my Julian years by collaborating with current students in a worthwhile activity.
A couple months later, I learned that Julian was looking for Career Day presenters. I jumped at the opportunity, so I completed the online form to express my interest, and then the organizers got in touch with me, and I arranged for time off from work.
On May 23, I walked back inside Julian, excited to be back for I knew was a fantastic opportunity, wearing a red shirt to suit my mood for being back inside Julian. The Career Day was structured for students in their advisory/homeroom classes to be on 30-minute rotations for presentations and for a lunch period, too. I presented to one 8th grade group, and after a break, two 6th grade groups, and then I finished with a 7th grade group. Among the many special parts of the day was that I presented in room C204, which was where I had advisory (homeroom) and science classes in 6th grade.
I found it fitting to start my presentation by telling the students I am a Julian alumnus, and so fas as I know, I was the only Career Day presenter who was an alumnus. I felt that I could connect with the students by showing them some photos from my yearbook, my graduating class's plaque in the 1st floor hallway, and the file I had inscribed in the Julian mural outside the building. Indeed, I felt a sense of power in being able to connect with the students by showing how I was once in their shoes and that I played a significant role in Julian's history by starting there back when its construction had just been completed and was part of the first group of students to begin there in 6th grade and graduate after 3 years there.
Presenting at Career Day was a chance for me to step back and think about the nature of my work as a librarian cataloger. The idea I imparted to the students is that librarianship is about connecting people with useful information. Part of connecting to information is keeping it organized, which is what I do as I work with MARC records that contain information about the library resources and authority files that provide a standardized way to access the information in records. As part of my presentation, I gave them an activity to organize a list of items, and then I showed them how they would be organized using the two primary library classification systems, both Dewey and Library of Congress.
As a librarian, I enjoy answering questions, and I liked the questions I got from the students, to see the way they engaged with what I told them about my work, and even some of the questions they asked about my personal interests and life as a Julian student nearly 20 years ago.
The final group I presented to was special, because it was Kelly Good's advisory. I got to know her about 10 years ago when we taught Religious Education class together, and now she was at Julian for her first year there.
Also, at one point during the afternoon, during a passing period, two students I know from Religious Education made a point to come see me, and they surely had some way of knowing I was in that room. We had a nice short chat. I remarked that I had classes in that room. When one of them asked about the Party Hard with Jesus Christ routine I do in RE class, I mentioned that I learned that in college, but the groundwork was being laid in middle school as I was experiencing a blooming in faith.
Truly it was an energizing experience to reconnect with Julian and to offer some affirmation to the students by being part of a different type of learning experience they had that day.
Being there reminded me of a poem, Puerto Rico Regreso, with a stanza that inspired the title of Sonia Sotomayor's memoir My Beloved World. The English translation reads, "Forgive the exile this sweet frenzy: I return to my beloved world, and I am in love with the land where I was born."
I certainly experienced a rebirth through the transformative experience of my years at Julian, and it is truly my beloved world, which I feel strongly 19 years later. One distinct reminder is the watch I wear, which was a gift to me on the evening I graduated. I have worn it ever since, and it symbolizes the wonderful reality of being a Julian alumnus and how I continue to be impacted by those years.
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| Here I am posing in the classroom where I presented, and where I had two classes in 6th grade. Thanks to Jessie King, a presenter across the hall on Career Day, who photographed me during a break we had. |
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| Here I am in action during my presentation. Thanks to Kelly Good for this photo. |
In the spirit of this sign, it is a beautiful day for me to be a Julian alumnus, as it has been for 19 years.
Go Julian Jayhawks!
Julian Red Forever.
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