no rest for the wicked

or, my educational experience at SCILS....
is actually a continuation of an educational experience that began in 2003.
Through a happenstance meeting of a new friend at the Avon 3Day in 1999 and a variety of personal circumstances/events, I decided I wanted an MLIS. I love libraries; after working at a public library for a couple of years, I realized that the order and organization, the impact of technology, the value to the community each library serves made it an interesting place to work, with some level of predictability, but there is an everyday element of surprise and novelty as well - new books, new questions, new knowledge. However, there was no applying to grad school before I'd finished my undergraduate degree that had been deliberately abandoned in a inexcusably lucid moment some 20 years earlier. I finished my B.S. in an online program in the minutes in between working, parenting, marriage, homeownership, and being a friend (it also ate most of my weekends), but I came out confident I could survive the rigors of grad school, learning at 6 credits per semester, able to write and communicate clearly, nimble with electronic resources, and juggling all the people and other important things in my life. I turned in my final project three weeks before orientation at Rutgers in August 2006. And I was barely prepared for what I'd gotten myself into.

This program has been more difficult than I ever would have imagined (despite the fact that I am frequently reminded that it's library science, not rocket science). The reading and lectures, my own attempts at stretching the day, adding minutes at the start and hours at the end, and the gallons of the jet-fuel I brew in my kitchen only helped up to a point (and earned me an ulcer last summer), but there is a tremendous sense of accomplishment as the semesters progress.

I am grateful for this distance-learning option, I simply would not have been able to pursue either of the degrees any other way and I have no one to blame but myself for having limited options, but the truth of the matter is that I think it's been a pretty great ride. I've had some truly outstanding professors, having stayed in contact with three of the six I've had so far. I love the incredible and endless collection of materials I can access through the RU Libraries. I have developed some new skills; my perceptions about many things have changed and expanded. Socially, I think there are certainly fewer casual acquaintances -- name recognition and a sense of mutually achieved survival isn't really the same thing as having a cup of coffee in the same place and chatting once a week before class-- but, I think I probably have developed as many better friends as I would have in person.

My educational experience set at Flickr
Our collective educational experience