The Starry Maiden

Loss

School is just starting now. I can't believe it's already September...I had decided to take a year of general studies to brush up my academia skills before going abroad for school again. My advisors on both sides of the Atlantic agreed that it would be in my best interest to see how things go for this school year.

So as I step through the doors into the library, I find myself glad that I decided to only do a couple of courses in the General Studies category to settle back into school. Especially since it has been some thousands of years since I attended school in any traditional sense... Learnt things? Oh absolutely. I learnt plenty. Attend school? No... No, I did not. While, it is different from my original plan to study abroad again, it has made it possible to take an entry level history class. The prof told us today that she expects us to be thinking of a topic to write on for the term, with mini-assignments bearing the intention of guiding us through history essay creation little-by-little. Which is great for me because while I may have written art history papers before... A: that is a completely different kind of history. And B: it's been a while since I wrote anything other than my personal journal.

Introductory history also happens because it was never really an interest of mine... And now? While I am still pretty uninterested, at least I stand a slight chance of not failing... Because I can't really retake all those art courses I did for my bachelor's degree... Mostly because I will have only graduated a little over a year ago, but I have had a little more time than that to improve. And that will show to any one of the professors that I had. The other class I'm taking? Introductory level archaeology. That's sure to please my mom.

The first mini assignment in my history class is supposed to help me familiarize myself with the library, so that I can find academic and serious sources, not wishy-washy articles filled with more opinion than fact, for my writing. Ironically, my first archaeology assignment is basically the same thing. I have to find four different books and six different articles through the library's search system. I walk over to the nearest computer, hoping that looking at it will jog my memory, but admittedly... I never really made much use of the university's library for most of my two years at this school, opting to use the public library or online scholarly articles.

I must have looked like I needed help because in my periphery I can see someone approaching.

"Did you need a hand using the library's search engine?" I turn to face the source of the question to find...

"Emmett?" His face looks shocked for a moment, but he recovers quickly.

"Astraea! The world just keeps getting smaller, doesn't it?"

"Do you work here? When did that happen?" He most certainly did not work here during my bachelor's. My remaining girlish crush on him at the time would have made me be the top library user for my whole five years.

And no. The girlish crush did not last all this time. Yusuf saw to that.

"I got hired a few weeks before I moved in, in March. I got to work the whole summer to get familiar with the system. I even managed a few updates to the old system to make it easier for everyone from faculty and students to library staff, like yours truly."

"Wow... So, even if I had used the library a bunch during my bachelor's I would probably be lost anyway." He chuckles.

"Maybe not totally lost, but I can get you started. Since, I've already had a bunch of students on that history assignment..." He nods at the paper in my hand, "I can't give you the full guided tour. That would be an unfair advantage over your classmates."

"Ah, but what is the point of an advantage if you don't take advantage of it?" I look up at his eyes and shrug a little.

"True... How about this? I will get you started and then I will follow you to each location. Without giving any hints. I will even do tour-guidey things along the way."