Fall Semester Update.

So I am still* alive and kicking. I had planned on keeping this blog updated with posts about library school, however this semester has been my busiest yet and I have not had the time to post as much as I would have preferred. I'll try and post more frequently next semester. This semester I am taking:

LIS 621: Introduction to Information Services
LIS 645: Public Libraries
LIS 646: Academic Libraries

Throughout the course of my first year in the program, I gradually adjusted to the larger amount of weekly readings, made great strides in my writing abilities, and I feel as though the quality of my work greatly improved and was more on par with a graduate level. And just when I was thinking I had graduate school down pat, this semester comes along and knocks me flat. Seriously. I was not expecting the number of projects and assignments this semester. Overall there is a combined total of thirteen assignments in all three courses, six in one class, five in another, and two in the other. As if things were not stressful enough between staying on top of all of the weekly readings and discussion assignments, many of the additional class assignments are due within a day of one another!

Melodramatic stressing aside, I have managed to do relatively well so far this semester. I was trucking right along, joyfully anticipating the start of winter break in five weeks, when I got a not so great grade on an assignment. FYI, 'not so great grade' is not my perfectionist way of saying an A- or a B+ instead of an A+. I'm not THAT much of an annoying, overachiever to be quibbling over an A- /B+ and an A+ in such a challenging class.

Let me be clear, I am not disputing the grading of the assignment or anything like that. I am more concerned that the grade is an indication that I am woefully unprepared for a post-MLIS career since it is so far off from my normal grades. Not that it takes much to send me into an insecurity spiral of DOOM, but when most of my grades are A+ and then I get a drastically different grade, it is unnerving and makes me wonder if I have what it takes/belong in the library and information science field. 

This is what my pity party typically looks like.

However, after I allowed myself a ten minute pity party (complete with cute animal pictures), I went back to work studying the class readings for the upcoming week. Because as much as I sometimes want to spend my time bemoaning one grade, and I do think that concern is appropriate, I cannot allow it to make me lose focus on everything else. I am one semester and five weeks away from graduating with my master's in library and information science. I still have five additional assignments, four or five (depending on the class) discussion assignments, and a final exam until I can relax during the holiday break. I also have to keep in mind that I have done remarkably well (in my, admittedly biased, opinion) for a student who had a four year break between college and graduate school, and who has absolutely zero** library experience. Regardless, I cannot expect to ace every assignment nor know everything LIS related upon graduation. I just need to have faith that my education will provide me the foundation to be successful in a library/information science career and that on-the-job experiences will fill in the remaining gaps.

That's enough angsty school reflections for me, back to work!

*Knock on wood, because the semester isn't over yet!
**Unless you want to count the summer I spent shelving books as a volunteer at my local public library in middle school.

P.S. - These are my go-to cute GIFs for when life gets you down:

 

GIF Source: Buzzfeed, where else?