Blog/Reflections: Current Term
June 1, 2021
Looking forward while looking back.
Looking forward while looking back.
Today is my last first day of a session for graduate school. Given all of the road bumps that have been in my path over the last two years, it's hard to believe that the end is in sight. I have been lucky to have peers to work with outside of classes in my internship, and this cohort has helped us weather all of the storms (some figurative, some literal) that happened during our program. But two of the four of us graduated in May, and one has already secured a job in another state. It solidifies the end of this part of our journey together, knowing that he'll be leaving by the end of the month for a new chapter in Colorado.
[Image description: A screengrab of a video meeting for Research & User Experience Interns at SMU. People shown are the program leader, Jonathan McMichael; chat supervisor Sarah Jenkins; myself, Joanna Russell Bliss, and my fellow interns: Leanne Stearns, Ramon Garcia, and Beatrice Downey.]
When I think back to the beginning of my internship and this graduate program, I remember being terrified at how much I had to learn in order to do well as a librarian. I remember asking questions. Constantly. And making a few mistakes along the way.
But the longer I've worked as an intern and studied in my classes, the more I've learned, and the more confident I've become. I've become a part of a team at SMU Libraries -- not only my intern cohort, shown here, but also the team at Fondren Library (my home building), and the overall team at SMU Libraries. Using Slack and Teams to connect virtually while working from home, we've been able to build stronger connections that we had before in person, connections that should be even better as we begin to return to campus more frequently.
I am sad to see this chapter end, but even more excited to see what lies ahead. I'm eager to finish these last two courses, and to find a job where I can continue the work I began at SMU Libraries.
Screen grab taken by Jonathan McMichael. Used with permission.
Read through my posts from previous terms: