One morning in September...

Looking for work after graduating college was a humbling experience. I spent a month applying to every publishing job, every writing gig, or anything remotely related to my spanking new English degree – to no avail. I finally broke down and got a retail job at the local Dillards department store to cover rent.

My first day of work was 9/11. 

They closed the mall that day, and the day following. Training was rescheduled for Thursday, and I worked through the weekend. Here I was, this traumatic experience had just shook all of us to our cores, and I was working at Dillards. It felt surreal. It felt wrong. I wasn’t above working retail – I’d been working since I was 12, mostly in retail jobs before my college library gig – but I hadn’t just paid my way through college and accrued some serious student loan debt to be right back where I started.

I lasted less than a week. On Sunday, I quit. Monday morning, I called every newspaper and publishing company in the Yellow Pages. (Insert Gen X joke here.) Granted, the list wasn’t long down in Colorado Springs, but I left a handful of messages. 

That afternoon, I received a call from the publisher of the Colorado Springs Business Journal. They hadn’t posted the job yet, but they had an opening for an editorial assistant. Would I be interested in coming in for an interview? That call shaped the trajectory of my career and my life. I started as the CSBJ’s newest editorial assistant the following week. 

Like many positions I’ve had over the years, I soon created my own role. The publication was plagued with staffing issues and financial woes - in the crevices of hardship, I taught myself AP style, layout and production, and the ins and outs of newspaper publishing. I filled in gaps where needed and was soon running the weekly editorial meetings and doing layout for the daily legal pub. For the next three years, I absorbed like a sponge all that I could from the veterans I worked with. I made a million mistakes as I went but pummeled ahead each day figuring it out. 

After I left the Business Journal, I moved to Denver to take a position working as an editor for a global newswire service. While the work wasn’t always titillating, I loved the editing groove, and I made lifelong friends in that newsroom. We had a lot of down time at that job, as we were at the mercy of when corporate news would come through, and I ended up using that time to my advantage.

My dream was to eventually go out on my own - freelance writing, editing and public relations. I started taking steps toward making that a reality. I went back to school for a Technical Writing and Editing certificate at Metro State. I finished writing a novel I had started years before. Each day I spent my lunch break hanging out in the music section at the Denver Public Library. I loved spending time there. I knew that to build my freelance portfolio, I needed experience, so I volunteered my writing and editing services to the library’s public information office. I began writing articles for their newsletter and editing press releases. Eventually, they hired me as a contract writer to write a commemorative booklet for the anniversary of the library’s beloved Rare Book Auction. 

This was the project that eventually led me to Anythink. 

When I started at Anythink, I had never launched a brand. I had never organized an event, designed an immersive experience, managed a website or done any public speaking. 

The job description for the writer/editor position had all of the promise of revolution - this was a place that was going through significant change, that was on the precipice of something BIG. The animated clip art on the website said something different. But I knew it in my gut, there was something special that was happening. Luckily, they wanted me to be a part of it.

It’s fitting that I’m launching my blog this week, a week significant to my life in so many ways. Twenty-three years ago this week, I realized life was too precious to settle; I quit my job at Dillards and pulled out that phone book. Fifteen years ago today, we launched the Anythink brand, introducing the world to a whole new way to think about libraries. It was this week in 2012 that we launched R-Squared - The Risk and Reward Conference – an interactive conference inspired by the concept of taking smart risks to move libraries forward. The event's ripple effects could be felt for years to come throughout the library industry. This very week in 2014, we launched Outside the Lines, partnering with libraries around the world to find new, creative ways to connect with our communities. 

And now here we are, 2024. I’ve taken another leap of faith, leaving my job at Anythink this past April to take some time off to recalibrate, recharge and reconnect with my creative center. My time the past four months has been centered around the idea that joy is essential to a healthy and happy life. I’ve spent my time traveling, connecting with old friends and making new ones, deepening existing connections, seeing music, visiting museums and parks, spending time in nature, spending time with my family, nesting in my apartment reading, writing, organizing and daydreaming. I’m in the throws of The Artist’s Way, breaking myself open in a way I didn’t think was possible. And resting. It’s been a true gift to myself, which I acknowledge has been a privilege and one that I worked really hard for. 

While much of my focus has been inward, I know that it’s through love, gratitude, collaboration and connecting with others that true happiness lives. I’ll be shifting outward over the coming months, focusing on the ways I can contribute to my community locally and globally through ideas, inspiration and action. This blog will be a vehicle to document my journey, and provide creative sparks designed to inspire. 

Let’s create something meaningful together.