Guess what? After a very, very long hiatus, I’m back.
I’m a Librarian again. I’m also a Fashion Designer with my own fashion label (megsmithmakes.com), but I have made the decision to take the pressure away from earning creatively, and return to Librarian Life as a regular source of income.
There is so much that has changed over the last few years. Since I last posted I was but a Librarian babe in the woods - a Library Officer in a diverse and colourful public library trying to find their career niche. I thought that I had for a while - I scored a job in Collections and moved to another Library service, and it was a great job. To be honest, I probably would have still been in that job if not for the COVID years. In a tale that has been played out by thousands, I found returning to the “office” after working from home was… unpalatable. It wasn’t just the commuting, it was more the tiresome paranoia. The staff were somewhat paranoid of each other, the patrons were either extremely paranoid or deliberately defiant. Having to manage all those personalities and heightened tensions was just… not what I wanted nor expected from a career as a Librarian. I just wanted it to be about the books again. So I left that job. I had started designing and sewing costumes in 2019, and I enjoyed it immensely, so I thought that perhaps I would go back to school and learn a little something about fashion design.
I dragged my mature age student self back to TAFE and learnt all about sewing seams, designing collections, and how terrible polluting the fashion industry is. It was so wonderful to be learning again. It was nice to be amongst people who were creative and inspiring and who were eager to learn new things. The lecturers were amazing, and I felt the slightest tingle of disbelief every time I walked into class - surrounded by machines, sketches, cutting tables, half-dressed mannequins. This was the fashion industry (or at least the beginnings of it) and I was there, in the midst of it. Bit weird for a 40-something year old Librarian who had never really been interested in fashion before this point.
I loved learning fashion. I loved learning how to draw designs and alter patterns and make stuff. I loved learning about how to be a sustainable designer. I still love these things, but as with any creative profession it really is hard to earn a living. And if you don’t have huge budgets for advertising, it’s even harder to get your stuff out there and in front of people. I didn’t want to have to put too much pressure on the need to earn, so I decided to head back to the Library so I could earn a steady income whilst still running my label.
In an ironic twist of fate, it was actually reading the book “What you are looking for is in the Library” by Michiko Aoyama that lead me down this path in the first place. The book follows the patrons of an enigmatic community Librarian named Ms. Komachi. Ms. Komachi is an expert in sensing what people seek in life, and providing just the book they need to help them find it. Chapter 2 introduces us to Ryo, an accountant who yearns to open an antiques store but is too daunted to make the change. Through a series of events initiated by Ms. Komachi, Ryo realises that keeping his job as an Accountant to support his dream of the Antique Shop is entirely possible, if he pursues each career in parallel, and so use one to help enhance the enjoyment of the other. How could I help but see the similarities to my own situation?
And so reading that book led me to this point.
So although my main source of income will be Librarian work, I consider it my side hustle. At heart I am a fashion designer and that is what I say when people ask the inevitable “So what do you do?”. I am grateful to have my Librarian career as a tool to fuel my passion.
So this is my timely reminder that self identity is not linked to earnings.
You can work at Woolies but be a poet. You work in childcare but be an actress. You can work in a library but be a fashion designer.
Your work is not who you are, but your passion certainly is 🤎
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