Cafe Hitch-hike

2004-04-17

Adopt-a-Librarian

Agh, high school has been on my mind lately! Damn teen users of my library! Damn Joaquin! No, not the Joaquin who is my newborn nephew, but a gay teen Filipino who adopted me as his own personal librarian! He wants me to sign him up for his computers, then he wants me to find some books for him. Ah, yes, and then he asked me if our library is hiring pages! Damn it all! Okay, just kidding. I like Joaquin and I think he's a cool kid. He has a lot of interests. I don't blame him for asking about employment because the library is a cool place for a teen to work. I wish we could hire him, but I doubt he ever will; it seems like only the relatives of the director's buddies get hired, but I digress...

Joaquin asked me if I wonder why he's in the library all the time.

"Mmm, no," I replied, "but I can take a guess. It's quiet, clean, and nobody bugs you. You've also got so much stuff nearby so you can find out information about anything you want."

He often requests the Rainbow High series by Alex Sanchez and we have to ask other libraries to send it here because we don't have it. It makes me remember a buddy back in my hometown who was a theater instructor at the local community college. Cool guy, his name was Fred. He headed a gay support group for teens and young adults.

"The whole thing is about showing them a positive place to learn more about their identity," he told me. "We don't want them to find out by cruising or going to gay bars, unsafe or risky places."

Sure, I can support that. Teen years aren't easy, and I can't imagine they're very easy for someone like Joaquin.

The library's closed for the day, so I better get going...

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