I started avoiding this space these past few months. I was seeing, learning, and thinking about a lot of things – but I avoided my website. On a whim this week I changed it up. I just don’t need to keep the portfolio structure I had as a grad student. I loved my website then, but it has a lot of associations of stress, worry, trying to adhere to this very strict version of myself. I’m over it. I needed something new.
Lots of things have been happening.
I graduated from IU with my MLS and MIS in May. Sometimes I forget I have two Master’s degrees. I haven’t gotten my diploma yet, so I suppose it’s not quite official.
(Above photo taken after I finally figured out how to affix my hood to my gown.)
The day after graduation, I chopped off all my hair and took off on a road trip of the southeast US. I met a lot of new cities for the first time, including Clarksdale, MS; New Orleans, LA; Pensacola Beach, FL; Savannah, GA; Charleston, SC; and Asheville, NC.
Now I’m just about two months into my new job. Times flies! I am now a salaried employee trying to get my bearings in a new library. My colleagues are great and Madison is insanely beautiful in the summertime.
Some professional miscellany:
- I was ACRL Member of the Week in June.
- I also was recognized as a DLF Fellow, meaning I will have the funding to go to a conference that I have heard wondrous things about for years. Cannot wait.
- Last month I had a post featured on the E-Science Community Blog: “Five tips for getting settled into your data-related job“
- I applied to be editor of the LITA blog and they said yes! I missed Hack Library School too much to stay away. The call for regular writers is up – apply by August 15!
Overall, I feel so much more balanced right now than I ever did in library school. I am so glad I did the things that I did during that time because they paid off in all the right ways, but I needed to rediscover my personality. I didn’t even realize how different I was until I emerged from that stress.
