"You Made My Day!"

I met a frazzled student today.

She reminded me of myself last semester. The "Newbie" trying to figure out a new School and not least of all how to use the photocopying machine in the library!

This lady, a mature student, was carrying two bags (no doubt full of library books and course syllabi!) and she looked stressed. Not that I’m an expert on all the technology in this library but I’ve been here for a semester and I’ve mastered the photocopying system. So I volunteered to help her photocopy. She gave me a smile which I did not expect to be so lovely and she looked straight at me and said “thank you so much, you made my day”. The way she said it I knew it wasn’t just an exchange of pleasantries. She really had had a tough day.

I went back to my desk and laptop I was a little sad as I looked at the time. It was minutes to six in the evening and this lady effectively told me that she had been stressed for the whole day. I thought about how many hours she spend stressing about deadlines (how on earth am I going to meet them all!) and resources (where on earth is this book in this library, how long is this inter-library loan going to take?) and perhaps wondering if she made the right decision to continue her education. I resonated with her because last semester on a lot of days- that was me. Frazzled and dazzled by the education in front of me. Thank you God for reaching through me to make one of your daughter’s give a sigh of relief.