Hawaiian Pacific Collection reading room

She had no idea what to do. She was clearly out of place. All of the people in the reading room were hard at work, determined to find something interesting, something valuable. She would not have seen the librarian, who was hiding behind her desktop screen, if it were not for the frantic sound of fingers hitting the keyboard. The only people who seemed to be in no rush, beside herself, were the three working students in the corner, organizing papers and quietly whispering about strict professors and impending research assignments. She quickly scanned the room and picked a seat near the window, but far enough away from the touch of the blazing sun. Pulling out her laptop, she braced herself for the imminent flow of embarrassment that she would feel. Naaaa! The Mac startup chime, normally a somewhat peaceful sound, bursted into the silence and visibly startled the men. Their droopy eyes and uncomfortable positions indicated that they had been at it for a while, and the piercing sound of the laptop roaring to life weakened their resolve to power through the rest of their sources. A man, seated at a table the middle of the room, quickly tidied up his files and books and documents and got out of his seat to stretch. The other man also decided to reward himself with a break as he pulled out his cellphone. Then, another student stumbles into the reading room, clearly not comfortable. He soon picks a seat at a table behind her, acting as his surroundings are anything but unusual. After a few minutes of fumbling, she hears a familiar sound. Naaaa! She cannot help but smile, finally feeling comfortable in her unfamiliar surrounding. She is now confident that, in the future, when she has the need to return with a definitive goal, she can be just like the few concentrated researchers who initially intimidated her. Unlike them, however, she now also knows that the experience of observing others can be just as precious as the information that is waiting to be sifted through.