The best laid plans. . .my 4th trip to my 7th library is again a little bit out of my original plan of order. However, I visited Kirkland last Thursday night on business unrelated to Jaunting and I’m going to take the excuse to count it as a trip and talk about another passion of mine – adult literacy.
 | First things first though, the wonderfully newly remodeled library. One of the best features is the wall of windows that overlooks the baseball fields in Peter Kirk Park. It’s close enough that you can sit in the nearby reading areas and actively watch the game! It’s the quiet area though, so you won’t be able to cheer on your favorite local team. Of course, I don’t have a picture of it, so you’ll have to visit and see for yourself! |
Upon the library’s re-opening in December, I occasionally meet my GED student at Kirkland and use the study rooms. (Our regular meeting place is the Lake Washington Technical College library. I recently saw a replica of Lincoln’s casket there, probably worth a different post, now that I think about it!) In addition to a volunteer on this Library Board, I’m a volunteer Adult Education Tutor through Hopelink. I’m currently assisting a student in her study plan to earn her GED. I completed the training late last summer and was matched with her in October. It’s been an amazingly rewarding experience to help her reach her goals and see visible progress every week. Plus, I constantly learn new things! The GED book is filled with literature, science, and math that I either don’t remember from high school or was never explicitly taught 
(seriously, when was the last time you didn’t use Excel to graph a line!). We constantly have further questions that I spend time looking up when I’m prepping for the tutor session or after our meeting. The library is a great meeting place for this as sometimes we pop out of the room and look something up right away.
I love being on the Library Board because I can help the community at large. I love being an Adult Education Tutor for the exact opposite reason – I can make a difference for one person at a time.
p.s. You can reserve a study room once a week for up to two hours by giving the library a call or visiting in person.
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