During the terrific R2 pre-conference party last night, I had the opportunity to talk to the young woman on the horse pictured above. My colleague, Jenny Levine, and I asked her how she liked Telluride and her job in general. "How could I not love it?" she asked back, gesturing to the horse she rode. "This is my office."

What she said struck me first as sweet, and suddenly as relevant to our R2 experience. "That's your first blog post," Jenny joked. Yeah, she was totally right.

Here's the thing: How many people you know have the opportunity to do a job they really believe in? How many people have the opportunity to take a time honored public tradition like a library, and make it relevant and vital for a new world? When things get tough or frustrating for libraries, it is easy to internalize the pain of slashed budgets and grumble about negative detractors. It is harder to remember that we are at the forefront of a real movement - we have the ability to make ourselves necessary in totally new and exciting ways. Being surrounded by library change agents as we learn from those outside our industry, this is what the R-Squared experience is all about.

Everywhere I turn at this conference, someone is challenging my assumptions, or inspiring me with her passion about a new idea and how it could work in her community. I am only four hours in to R-Squared, and I know that I will return to the place that I work ready to enact change and support innovation. I am a librarian because I love being a librarian. I believe what I am doing matters to my community. I will fight to make it better, stronger, and tougher.

I am going to make my whole community my office. And I am going to love doing it.