Va’ai | Kelston
“Well, in my job, because I work in the library, I have that feeling every day.
So when someone comes in and needs some help just photocopying or, you don’t realise that something bigger than just photocopying could be something that, it’s for immigration papers just to get their mum to come over, and they hadn’t seen their mum for years, and just to see the, the reaction on their face it’s, it’s amazing that the fact that you just did photocopying for somebody, and you actually helped someone to move forward in seeing their mum, which was like, last week. Yeah, I think that was the last time, yeah.
I really don’t, can’t really think of anything on the top of my head, but what I like to do is, every person I meet and connect with, they’re VIPs to me, no matter if they’re the actual CEOs or rough sleepers; they’re human beings. So, you just treat them like they’re family. So, if I see an elderly person, I see my mum or my dad, and if I see young youths, I see my kids, and if I see a rough sleeper I see a cousin or somebody. So, I don’t know, it’s just, it’s just normal I think, to me. I don’t, it’s part of, you know, myself. Dad always told us kids, three things that we should always have in us is to be kind, to be smart and to be brave. So, just a little kindness; to make it normal.
I definitely believe that you should make it normal for you just to connect with somebody. Someone that you see in the street, and you, and their head is down to say, hey how’s it going. Just acknowledge them. There are people that we connect with who are, who don’t get to talk to many people, and we’re the only people that they actually talk to and, and you’ve got to make sure that when you talk to them, you give them all your time, and that you actually are interested in what they’re saying, because you never know; you could be the last person that they’ve talked to and, and that’s it.
I’ve always lived in Kelston for 40 years. So, I’m actually 28.
No. I grew up in Kelston, Westside, and I’m 46 years old, one of three kids. I’ve got five kids of my own. Moved back home to look after Mum and Dad, but Dad passed away about eight years ago.
I never started off as a librarian. I’ve always worked with people. I actually was a chef for a good decade, and lifestyle was just too fast. It was good. I, I love to cook, and then I got into retail. So, no matter where I go, it’s always people that I work with, connect with. If I don’t have people, I don’t think I’m whole, and that’s why I like, I love my job, and my community.
I think it was when I was little. It was actually my mum. When I was younger I was actually, I didn’t know at the time I was dyslexic so I hated reading. I was about eight, so I was always in the dumb group, reading group, and when we used to go shopping, the kids always want to buy toys, so of course Mum said no. We had no money. So, she bought me a little book called The Magic Faraway Tree, by Enid Blyton, and that took me forever just to read. It took me a good, I don’t know, a whole month, just to stop the words jumping around, but when I finally finished a whole chapter book, for someone that was eight and hated reading, I thought I was amazing. So, I just kept on reading that book, and I think that’s where I got the passion for reading, was actually installed from Mum, without knowingly knowing that later on in the years, that I’ll actually become a librarian; someone that was dyslexic.
So, I just had a reunion last week and, and it was people I hadn’t seen for 30 years, and when they found out I was a librarian, they were sort of, what – but you weren’t that good at reading at school. So, it was actually good to show them, no people do change. Yeah, that’s me.
I believe just to make every single person that you connect with, that they’re special. It sort of breaks down the barriers. When you’re at work, I want to make sure the team is happy and special, and they want to give more. If you’re just a little bit of kindness and, and just acknowledge that they’re there, and that they mean something to somebody, even though we don’t actually know them, it actually empowers them. If you just give them that little empowerment, they can go further than what they can actually think they can do.”
