Let's try this again...
I'm a reference librarian wannabe. I first started working in libraries in 4th grade (age 10), helping reshelve books. I stayed a student library aide from then until the end of high school, because being surrounded by books is my idea of heaven!

In high school, there was a small group of us nerdy academic types who hung out in the school library, helping our librarian with filing and directing other students where to find materials they needed. We incorporated as an official school club, calling ourselves "Bibliotekas Zhurkas", which was Latvian for Library Rats. Our club charter was an adolescent masterpiece of bureaucratic double-speak that said the purpose of the club was to hang out in the library and occasionally help the librarian and plays Scrabble. All the founding members were officially Vice-Presidents, so we could list being a "Club Officer" on our college applications...

When I started in college, my assigned work-study job was in the cafeteria serving line. I went to our college library, talked to one of the staff about my 9 years experience in school libraries, and was immediately hired to work in the Closed Reserve room. Bye-bye cafeteria! I worked there all four years, as happy as a clam on Prozac.

I was Blinded by Science in college, however, so I became a biochemist professionally - but got training in literature searching in the old DIALOG days. Now I get my kicks doing PubMed and ISI searches for folks in our lab, and surrounding myself at home with thousands of books, which I will catalog. Someday. When I have time...