Finding Your Own Path with Carolyn Waters

Yuliana Kim-Grant's Phoenix Tales

Today's guest, Carolyn Waters, recounts the big moment of crisis when she realized the career she had spent 20 years building may not have been the life she was meant to live. In spite of her fears of leaving an established career behind and the fear she may never find her path, on this episode, you’ll hear the outcome of how this one step into the unknown, ended with her finding a surprising new career and life, both of which may have been what was intended for her all along.

Carolyn tells Yuliana about leaving her longstanding career in financial services to take a self-imposed sabbatical, where she gave herself six months to read, travel, explore, and get back in touch with everything she loved to do. This led her to volunteer at the New York Public Library, which ultimately became her salvation as she decided to pursue her Masters degree in Library Science from the Pratt Institute, and she is now the Head Librarian at the New York Society Library. Carolyn talks about what it was like to make a dramatic career change in her 40s, how much more rewarding her work is now that she is on her life’s path, and finding a healthy work/life balance as she takes on more challenges and responsibilities in her new profession. She shares the emotional story of her husband’s Stage 4 Melanoma diagnosis, how they overcame this difficult time in their lives, and the ways in which this experience shaped her worldview moving forward. Carolyn encourages listeners to take the opportunity to self-reflect if they are unhappy in their current circumstances, and that in doing so, this could lead to the path they’re truly meant for.

Carolyn’s inspired story of reinvention is a beautiful representation of our capacity to rebuild and reimagine as women, and shows us that it’s never too late to create a new journey in this life, and discover where we’re really supposed to be.

Episode Highlights:

• Carolyn worked in financial services for many years and finally got the point where she felt she had to do something else
• Despite spending 20 years working toward this career, she quit after slowly building up to her breaking point and coming up with a plan for her next step
• She gave herself six months to read, travel, explore, volunteer, and get back in touch with what she really loved to do
• She found herself at the New York Public Library often, began volunteering there, and that experience ultimately became her salvation
• Carolyn is now the Head Librarian at the New York Society Library
• Library school is a process of understanding information systems, how to find systems, how to catalog systems, and find very specific information
• Carolyn’s work ethic from her previous career translated to her new profession
• She wanted to make this big change to create a better life for herself, with a healthier work/life balance
• Even when she has challenging days, she reminds herself that it’s so much more rewarding than what she was doing before, and it was the right thing to do
• She is inherently drawn to solitude as a librarian, but also has a very public-facing role
• Her husband was diagnosed with Stage 4 Melanoma, and this terrifying experience led her to take stock of her life and truly appreciate what she had
• She focused on helping him get through it and get better, and did not stop to emotionally process what was happening until later
• Carolyn’s words of advice for anyone experiencing career dissatisfaction - find your own path
• The one song that most resonates for Carolyn about her life’s journey

Quotes:

“I just had reached a point I think, I don't know, call it a midlife crisis or something. I don't know. But it took a long, long time. But I finally got to a point where I thought, I have to just do something else.”

“I don't know that there was a single breaking point. I think that it had been building for a long time.”

“All these years, I mean, everybody says, Do what you love. And I'm like, I don't know what I love, because I haven't really had the time to think about it. But what if I never figure it out? That was scary, too.”

“The six months was on purpose, as well, because I didn't want it to be so long that I couldn't go back to doing what I was doing, that people wouldn't forget about me and the good work I'm doing, if, in fact, I needed to go back.”

“I went into it just being kind of open. And my initial feeling was just to spend some time doing things that I knew I had enjoyed in the past.”

“It hadn't really occurred to me that the library itself was going to be the place that was going to be sort of my salvation. But that's kind of where it started… I'm now the Head Librarian at the New York Society Library, which is the oldest library and oldest cultural institution in New York City.”

“Six months to the day that I quit my job, you know, my self-imposed sabbatical timeframe, was the day that I was accepted to library school.”

“I joke that I've had pretty much every job in the library. And I think that's kind of true. I was a Bibliographic Assistant, I was an Acquisitions Librarian, I was a Reference Librarian. I was the Assistant Head Librarian and now I run the place.”

“I really feel like I found where I'm supposed to be.”

“I will say that at every point that I have been at a crossroads of getting promoted and moving to a different level here at this particular job in this library, I have really agonized over the question of whether I should take it or stay in the position I'm in, because I didn't want to go back to where I was, and having no time to go to museums and read books.”

“As a nonprofit institution, a big part of my job is raising money for the institutions. And that's not something that I feel very comfortable doing. But it's a part of the job, I have to ask people for money and raise money. And it is very face-to-face. I think the way that I do it is trying to continue to find ways to carve out pieces of the job that remind me of why I became a librarian in the first place.”

“My husband was very sick for a while. He was diagnosed with Stage 4 Melanoma. And that was a terrifying, terrifying time. And I think that is also a moment where you sort of take stock of your life, and you think you really have to take care of yourself.”

“I think everybody's situation is so unique. You have to find your own path, you have to figure out what it is that you're dissatisfied with, and try to focus in on that.”

Links:

Phoenix Tales on Instagram

Phoenix Tales on Spotify

Phoenix Tales on Facebook