Libraries do so much more than just check out books. They can be lifelines for the community. For me, the library helped save my life during one of the most challenging times I have ever experienced.

In 2018, through a chain of circumstances, I ended up homeless and living in my car. I had a job, which was lucky, but struggled to find a place to live, so for that 10 months, the library became my home.

On the days I didn’t work, or worked later in the day, I was at the library before it opened. I would use the Wifi in the parking lot until the library opened, then spend my allotted 2 hours per day on the computer. I generally used this time to work on my blog, check emails, and do research. Then I would set up in corner somewhere in the library and read, journal, write, or just sit and be.

I would be at the library until they closed, they usually stay in the parking lot to use the Wi-Fi until I was reading to head to the rest stop where I slept. If I worked and couldn’t be at the library that day, I still spent time in the parking lot.

If the library was closed for a holiday, their Wi-Fi still worked, so I would just hang out in my car all day reading or using the Wi-Fi. My car was constantly full of library books.

And I wasn’t alone. I recognized other people who also slept at the same rest stop who spent their days at the library too. We never talked to each other, either at the library or the rest stop, but we all knew each other and noticed if the other wasn’t there.

The library was my community, it was where I felt safe and welcomed. No one judged me for being there every day. No one expected me to buy anything. No one looked at me as if there was something wrong with me.

I had always supported reading and libraries, but that experience gave me a whole new appreciation of the impact that libraries have on the people who visit them.