My mom likes to let people know the first thing I did when I got my driver’s license at 16 – I drove straight to the Loussac Library.

The library was my happy place since… forever. And to be able to have the freedom to go to it whenever I wanted? Not have to wait for a ride? The DREAM!

We moved a lot around Alaska when I was a kid but every community had a library, and that’s where I found a home. Friends, old and new. Adventure. Escape. Inspiration. Magic.

I don’t go as much as I used to – I have been building my own dream library at home. In that absence, I feel like libraries have grown into even more of a community space than they were when I was a kid (or I was just super book-focused as a kid and didn’t notice.)

In my neighborhood library I see memory kits to check out to for family members with dementia, board game areas, tons of legal and financial resources, WiFi, categories of collections new to me. Libraries are just sitting there, stock full of help for whatever you need. My adult brain is amazed at what they really are. Civic partners. Free gathering places. Publicly owned riches.

And yet when I enter any library in any community – it’s still magic.

The knowledge and art and adventure are still there for the taking. A spacey little Native girl can still disappear into the stacks.

My ode to libraries this National Library Week is lacking. But the best ode to libraries is to do what they are asking of us most – use them. My little commitment this week is to do just that. I’m going to find time to write and read and be inspired at my local library. Cuz I can still drive there any time I want.