To translate or not to translate

I had an epiphany last week.  Every wednesday I sit down to prepare for my Thursday night translating.  That's right.  I translate currently every Thursday night for a program at a library.  It's a 6 week program and tonight will be the 3rd week.  It's a cute program that gathers some families together, feeds them, reads some cute kids books, and then they all discuss them.  Every week there is a theme within the grand theme for the program.  For example, the main theme is animals, but this week's topic is curiosity.  It's very cute and lots of fun, and I have the wonderful opportunity to translate for the Spanish-speaking families that choose to come.

Except none have.  Not one.

But I digress- the epiphany. 

I HATE TRANSLATING.

There.  I said it.  Whew, what a relief.  WHAT????  YOU SPENT ALMOST 5 YEARS GETTING A DEGREE IN SPANISH.  HOW CAN YOU HATE TRANSLATING???? I'm sorry you see it as such.  (Me arguing inevitably with myself).

I love the language.  I love learning languages.  I fully intend to use Spanish every chance I get.  However, there's a major flaw here.  I live in Ohio.  AKA the midwest.  There aren't exactly a lot of immigrants in our neck of the woods.  I've been out of school for over a year, and I'm terrified to use my degree.  why? Because I've lost a lot of it.  Not a ton, but it's worn down quite a bit.  Mainly the accents.  The grammar.  The vocabulary (ay, the vocabulary).  I'm not used to speaking so fast, and hearing it is a little different.  Basically, I'm afraid I've just lost it.

And it shows in my translating.  I'm a little slower.  I have to look up more words.  And, unfortunately, when translating a kid's book which is hard.  YOU try to translate chinny-chin-chin it takes HOURS.  And when translating, I have this weird opinion that I should stick as closely as I can to the original context.  CONTEXT.  That's hard.  There are millions of English phrases that have no equal in Spanish.

My point being, I came to the conclusion I wasted my Undergraduate years.  But that changed, eventually, because I honestly gained so much more from the experience, even if that little piece of paper isn't going to do me much good.  At least that's what I'm hoping.  And having a liberal arts degree will be particularly useful down the road, like when I get accepted into an MLIS program. 

Yup, I plan to go back to school.  I want to be a librarian.  At least this month.  I'm sure next month it'll be something else.  It always changes.