By Crystal Carson

 My dream job has been to work as a page at the library. I was told that I couldn’t do the job by other people. Job coaches, friends, and other workers didn’t believe in me. They didn’t think that I could do it, and they also told me the library wouldn’t hire me.

My mom and dad both told me that I was the one who could do it! They told me to take the “t” off of “can’t” and it then becomes “can.” I told myself that I wasn’t going to listen to negative people’s comments.

First, I applied for the job online on my own. I asked some of my friends to help me do some research for the page job at the Wellington Library. They helped me email some resumes, cover letters, and references. I emailed it all to the library, and I waited a couple of weeks to hear from them about applying for the job.

Two weeks later, I got a phone call asking me to come in for an interview. I went to the interview and felt nervous and scared, but I answered the questions to the best of my ability. They called me the next day to say I was hired. I was so happy and excited, yet nervous, with happy tears in my eyes.

I have been on the job as a page at Wellington Library, Vancouver Island, for two years this year (2025). My job tasks are taking the book bin in and out, locking both sides of the bin, and doing the totes, newspapers, shelving books and magazines, shredding paper, sharpening pencils, and crayons. I also cut paper, dust shelves, and sort out CDs, DVDs, and books.

I’m not afraid to take a risk to follow my own dreams even when others tell me that I can’t do it. I just tell them to take the “t” off of “can’t.”