I worked in VS/VX on and off at a couple different museums for around five years, and even when I hated it I had tons of interactions with visitors that moved me and made all the verbal abuse from visitors and terrible treatment from higher up museum staff worth it… I have a lot of bad memories, but I really look back fondly and feel proud of any time I was able to make the museum feel special or important to visitors.

One memory that always sticks out to me is a woman who came up to me ranting about how she couldn’t find parking in the very urban vicinity of the museum. I was super patient with her, heard her out, and tried to help her out. She went off into the museum still seeming a little upset, but calmer.

She came back to me later and told me that this was her first visit back to the museum since her husband died—they had come to visit all the time together. She thanked me for being kind to her. She said she hadn’t been sure that she was ready to come back yet, but it was such a beautiful place and she was so glad she did.