Thing #22: Staying Current

The first Thing I posted to my blog was that I thought Thing 1 was simple and straight forward. I don't think my post reflects how nervous I was taking this on or how relieved I was that I was actually able to complete Thing 1. I had never blogged before.

Since then I have found my voice and realized that it's the personal touch that makes blogs interesting to me. I have really enjoyed reading your blogs and seeing how they morphed over time as you became more comfortable with the medium.

It wasn't the fact that you completed the Thing that made your blog interesting. For me it was the honest ways in which you described your foibles, your frustrations, your hard fought successes and candid observations that made your blogs must reads. I felt that I was right there with you. Some of you made me laugh out loud.

I realized along the way I didn't have to love all the Things equally, but in order for me to be credible I had to be honest and open about the process and my experiences with the Things.

I don't have a library to call my own right now, but I will continue to learn about new web tools and I will try to find the ways that they can add to my life to make it simpler and easier or simply more interesting. I am planning to walk my parents through the 23 Things (I had to wait until now so I could give my full attention to them.)

Every day I usually try to ask myself what I am grateful for. I have so much - my health, family, friends, food, shelter, my faith...asking that question regularly has changed my life.

I think if I ask myself, "What did I learn today?" it would also have a great impact on me. I love to learn. I love to see things from different perspectives and see how they fit together. The 23 Things experience has not only introduced me to some of the Things, but has introduced me to 350 people - most of whom I did not know before. Learning about you and your libraries has been the best part of this class for me.

Some of your points of view were new to me. Many of your hobbies and interests were fascinating: goats, cupcakes, aprons, Hugh Laurie, haiku...

And even though we all live in FL the descriptions of where you live/work were very different - some people live way out in the country, some by the beach, by the river - we were a diverse group. Thank you for sharing bits and pieces of yourselves with me. I enjoyed it!

I learned so much from you! We had people of all ages and people with varied levels of experience with the web. So far we have had 104 responses to the 23 Things survey and only 22% had ever watched a YouTube video before. And that is the one Thing that the most people had done before they began this class. So although some people were questioning why YouTube was a Thing - 78% of the survey respondents to date had never seen a YouTube video before this class.

I had fallen in to the trap of getting caught in the day to day. I worked hard and stayed focused in order to meet the demands of many people. I enjoyed my work, but became myopic. I did not take the time to sharpen the saw, as Covey would put it. 23 Things has shown me that I should make time for my development. There will always be patrons clamoring for information. I will serve them, but I also need to serve myself. I know that all of these Things will not survive, new trends and products will emerge, but I think it's important to have some understanding and hands on experience so I can follow the changes and more quickly grasp the next Things.