This Evening

Pros:

REAL job!
Know somebody who works at the library/lives in Baltimore
Right subject area
East Coast!

Cons:

Pretty far away from Wisconsin family and friends
Don’t know anyone either than Kelly
Public library!
Salary not quite what I had hoped for

Madeline looked over her list carefully. It was just her initial impression of the situation, but she realized that it pretty much summed up the decision she was going to have to make: staying in Wisconsin/the Midwest near her family or striking out on her own and moving to a completely different location.

“I wish this job was offered to me in Chicago or something like that,” she thought out loud. “Because if it was a little closer to home, I wouldn’t even really think twice about accepting the job. But what other options do I have? I’ve only got one other possibility – that academic library in Kansas. And I don’t know any one there! Plus it’s a lot smaller than Baltimore.”

Her mother had always characterized Madeline as a big city girl. She cited the ease that Madeline had in adjusting to life in Milwaukee, but Madeline tried to brush that assessment away by complaining that Milwaukee wasn’t that big. But deep down inside, she recognized that what her mother had to say was probably right. Madeline liked having things to do available nearby. And Milwaukee had a really awesome movie theater just down the block from her that showed all kinds of independent and arty films. Plus there was always something going on in the summer. Yeah, she probably was a city girl. Just a city girl who understood the smaller town life too.

Madeline went to bed and slept on her decision. She had to work at St. Mark University in the morning before heading back to Cedar Grove.
The next morning broke with muggy August air oozing in through the open windows. Madeline had tossed and turned all evening, both from the momentous decision that was upon her and also from the fact that she was sleeping on a cot in the hottest weather she had experienced so far in Milwaukee. The usual breeze off of Lake Michigan had not started and the air was just hanging over the city.