While completing my undergrad program, I hated writing reflections. We were forced to “reflect” on everything, meaning we wrote a page or two of complete and total bull in order to appease our professors. Upon graduation, I looked forward to no longer having to “reflect.” My crew even put a snide reflection comment on our graduation t-shirts. Yet here I am, well over a year into writing this blog, and I am reflecting on my practices at least once a week. I do this because my internalized reflections are so constant that I need to put them into writing on a regular basis.

Lots of my favorite bloggers are writing posts in which they reflect on the past year and look forward to 2011. At this point, that would be very difficult for me to do because there is so much impending change with the start of the new year. So please excuse these scattered and possibly random ramblings.

First of all, I really wish I was one of those rock star bloggers who craft these really moving, thought provoking posts that really push your thinking. But I don’t, and honestly think that this point I can’t. I’m still in the infant stage of my career — I’m 25 years old and in my third year of librarianship, for crying out loud! I’m still a kid, geez. And I’m completely proud of what I accomplished in my 2.5 years at my fabulous elementary school. I may not have done things that genuinely flow with or push the limits of the changing shape of our profession, but I can honestly say that I built a pretty strong program that served my kiddos and fulfilled their reading needs. It’s something to be proud of, and I am.

The time to reflect on and appreciate my time spent with 2nd and 3rd graders was very brief. I’ve been in a frenzy of brainstorming and planning for my new middle school library position. I am very hopeful that this position will give me the opportunity to push my limits and become the change agent that I dream of being. But for now, I have to start with baby steps to make changes to the program so I can make it my own. Looking forward, I’m so unbelievably excited about the opportunities and challenges that await.

Even though this end of the year reflection is different, scattered, short, and a probably incomplete, it is an accurate representation of the place where I am at this moment in time. And isn’t that basically what a reflection should be?