What you do as a teen colors everything after...

I really do believe that what you do in your teen and college years colors everything after. When I was a teen, my passion was riding horses. My recent article in Law Library Journal about my horse, Sultan, tells a lot about how that experience has informed my later work life. But it doesn’t mention that the image I have of running a really large library or a big project or committee, is that of riding a big horse, only somewhat under control.

I worked with Richard Amelung, a superior cataloger, and now Associate Director at St. Louis University Law Library (he was acting director at their University Library for a while, too). I noticed one day that Richard finished off keying in a catalog record with the sort of flourish that concert pianists use when the complete a piece. You could just hear the closing chord! I asked and found that Richard had played piano and organ as a teen and still plays organ sometimes.

I don’t know how many of us can see such direct correlations between our jobs, hobbies, passions as teens and young adults, and our current selves. So, what's YOUR story? What is YOUR image or habit that shows where YOU come from?