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At dinner tonight, I told my mom’s friend, Sveta, that I am considering going to library school to obtain a Master of Library & Information Science degree. She looked at me like I was insane. “What was wrong with Computer Science?” she kept asking me. However, she refused to hear the answer. I kept trying to tell her that I had lost interest in programming about a year ago, when I noticed that I was doing well in all of the classes that had nothing to do with my major. I was having much more fun in Philosophy, Sociology, Political Science, and Psychology classes. “But Computer Science pays well! How much do librarians make?”

That’s when I hesitated. With a B.S. degree in Computer Science, my starting salary would be around $50,000. With a Master’s degree in Library & Information Science, I would only start at $30,000. (That is pretty insane, I have to admit.) When I told Sveta the average salary, her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “No… No, no. We can’t have you going into librarianship. How about Speech Pathology?” Huh. That’s funny. I don’t remember asking you for career advice. (And, really? Speech Pathology? That’s your suggestion?)

The difference in the salaries had me worried, of course. I can’t live on a $30K salary in New York City. A one-bedroom apartment would cost me $1,500 - 2,000 per month. Rent alone would cost approximately $21K a year. I would only be making enough to pay my bills… and that’s not a life I want to live. However, I am not planning on earning such a paltry salary for too long. Worse comes to worst, I can live with my parents until I get a raise or find a new position. (Hey, I have my own apartment down here in my parents’ 2-family home. And it’s completely free. I could definitely do worse.) The only problem would be transportation to my workplace, since Staten Island is so damn far away from everything.

Option B would be to rent a 2-bedroom apartment in a neighborhood closer to my place of work and rent out a room. Of course, this has its own drawbacks, like strange roommates. Living with a stranger seems like a very unnerving and rather taxing situation. You never know what you’re going to get: Neo-Nazis, tree-hugging hippies, evangelical Christians, convicted sex felons, nudists, or otherwise mentally imbalanced individuals. And, with a roommate, you can’t know when you’re going to see the other half of the rent.

Whatever I have to do, I am willing to do it. I have looked into public librarianship and it really seems like the right choice for me. I would get to provide knowledge to the masses! I would be surrounded by books and other information all day. I will get to meet new people everyday. (And although that scares me, I think it’s more exciting than sitting alone in a cubicle, writing and testing code. There is interaction, of course, but it’s nowhere near as diverse as in a public library.) But, best of all, I’d be making a difference: helping kids with their reports, assisting immigrants in English lessons and other relevant information, and teaching people how to read. What could possibly be more rewarding than that?