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introductions.

Hi, I'm Shannon.
I'm an under 40 year old woman who runs a small, rural library in West-central Indiana. I have a bachelor's degree in English teaching from Indiana State University.  I ran a Sylvan Learning Center for several years, I've taught Junior English, 7th and 8th grade English, and high school yearbook.  I took a hiatus from teaching in 2008 when my 2nd child was born and was soon approached about an opening at my hometown library.  Their current director was retiring and they needed someone with my level of education, so I opted in and have been the library director at the Kingman-Millcreek Public Library since 2011.  It isn't at all what I thought my career would look like, but it's been a great fit!  It allows me to spend all kinds of time with the parts of the English language I love, but few of the bratty kids.  It lets me design programs and activities that benefit my children and community and the schedule is amazing!
Personally, I'm a giant goofball.  I like to think of myself as an honest, open book.  I've had a lot of really crappy life experiences in my adulthood, but try to take everything in stride because we all have a story.  I have two children from my first marriage: a daughter, Aubrey, who is 15 and completely amazing (no joke, the kid is good at everything and super responsible), and a son, Aidan, who is 11 and is everything a boy should be-- busy, creative, sneaky, smart, a constant negotiator... did I mention busy?  My first husband, Aaron, and I had a child that we lost at 38 weeks.  That sucked, but it taught me and continues to teach me about life and loss and making days count.  My Aaron passed away after a 3 year battle with a rare cancer in 2012.  Again, that sucks, but we all have a something, right? I took several years to mend and then met my now husband, Brandon, in 2015.  He brought new life and surprises.  Turns out I met him in college (?!)! It's really cool when you can sit back and see all the pieces of your life and how God interweaves. We got married in 2018 and share custody of his two daughters: Taylor, 13, who is a constant entrepreneur and needs constant supervision (she and Aidan have too much in common), and Kennedy, 8, who I call my shadow... I adore her. Life is kinda great.
I started working on my master's degree in library and information science in May of 2019 and have seven classes under my belt.  My library doesn't require that I have an MLIS, but my husband really wants to move to Hawaii eventually so I thought I should get the education to support this as my profession.
I'm really looking forward to having pleasure reading as my homework this semester!






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