Your Library Card is Your Greatest Life Partner

Cuffing season is keeping company with someone during those long, dreary, “will I ever see the sun again?” winter months. Some people treat potentials like a March Madness bracket. You are going to be spending significant time with a partner. This is not “The Bachelorette”! 

The holidays are arriving. I am fortunate to be in a family that does not say, “so when are you getting married?” They know I am me. On any given day, that statement holds a plethora of attitudes. 

I am a proud library card owner. I know my library card number just like I know guacamole is extra. Blessed be to people who want to be texted from a lover as much as a political candidate asking for money. I want the text that it’s time to pick up a book I was #143 for on a waiting list a week ago. I will never be single because I am a library card owner. 

The world will make you feel like being in a relationship is the bee’s knees. I see couples. Most of the time, I do not want that honey. 

Prioritizing yourself will be a lifetime appointment. Reading is one of life’s immeasurable joys. Immersing in worlds outside of yours will be a fundamental connection. 

Gabourey Sidibe writes candidly in This Is Just My Face about her experiences from her Senagalese upbringing in Brooklyn to becoming a renowned actress. She writes just like you are sitting on a couch with her, sipping tea and snacking on Lorna Doone cookies. Her reflections on being a phone sex operator are poetic. 

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal is a novel of endearing, multigenerational sisterhood as the characters bond through creative writing. The novel is also a smooth listen on audiobook. 

These stories affirm the vitality of reflection; the audacity to know about yourself. 

Over the holidays, when you are asked over Zoom “so when are you getting married?”, give yourself the full permission to tell them, “My partner is my library card. I have my priorities.”

Ashley Paul

Ashley Paul Instagram

Ashley Paul is a traveler, runner, and baker. She is an Everlasting Bookworm and Culture Maven. She is passionate about supporting high school juniors and seniors to write compelling stories for their post-secondary careers. She loves stories with social commentary, atmospheric writing, and compelling characters.