I met my best friend in high school because, according to her, I turned around in my seat, without knowing who she was, and said “that guy has the face of a rat” with an accompanying head tilt towards said rat face. Truth be told, this kid did have a real Peter Pettigrew thing going on. (BIG apologies for the HP reference.) Teresa and I would tell this story over the years, and it was kind of funny for a while. But after 40 years, I hate that I made a negative comment about someone’s personal appearance, but I was 14 and I now work with 14-year-olds and they say some pretty messed up stuff so I’m going to go easy on my younger self. 

But, and you are probably wondering if there is a point to this post, what I like about this story now is that I made the first move by turning around and talking to a complete stranger. That’s a pretty baller move for a super shy 14-year-old Lori and I’m proud of her. 

And yet, I still do this. I mean that I talk to strangers, not that I make random comments about resemblances to rodents. I look for an entry point and I take it if someone looks interesting to talk to. Life is short. Strike up the conversation. Write a blog post. (See what I did there?) Go to the conference solo. Turn to the person behind you in line and say hello. At ALA in Philadelphia, I did just this and that’s how I met school librarian extraordinaire Gina Seymour and forced her to sit next to me at the YA Coffee Klatch (Don’t even get me started on that spelling.)

A while ago I read a KQ blog post by Steve Tetreault about not being anyone special (he lies – I’ve met him and he’s super special!) and that anyone can lead or even just do a small thing to engage with others and it really struck a chord with me. He wrote about how that means “doing whatever we can to make every day a little better, and thinking about what we can do on increasingly larger scales.” So, I took his advice and tried something new by applying to blog for KQ. (Spoiler: they accepted me, so that basically means that anyone can do this!)

We are social animals and it sometimes takes just a smile and a remark about the weather or cute shoes and you are on your way to meeting your new best friend. (No pressure, Gina. But if you want to hang at AASL, I’m down.)

With this blog post, I’m saying hello and starting this conversation with my fellow school librarians. We are the best people so it’s going to be fun chatting with you.