Balancing Spinning Plates as a Grad Student
How many times will one person abandon and revive their blog? I have done this more times than I would like to say, but the process of getting this blog ready for readers again (with a new URL and everything!) has gotten me thinking about what it looks like generally for grad students who want to do all the things but only have so much time and energy to do it.
For me, this blog is certainly something I want to keep going. While I’ve stayed semi-active on the associated social media accounts this whole time, I did allowed the site itself to lay dormant for many months before finally getting back into things. I could say that the hurdle that put things at a stand-still was me finding a new platform to host my writings, but that’s not the true “excuse” for waiting as long as I did.
The truth is that I have been spread thin for quite some time as someone who works a job (granted, only 29 hours a week), takes two grad school classes a semester, additionally took on an internship this Spring semester, and has a whole host of other personal responsibilities I won’t get into here. However, that’s similar to most grad students as they are trying to get their MLIS degree. Many undergraduate students are able to dedicate their whole selves to getting their degree (I was one of those students, at least), but that is far more rare once you get to the graduate level.
In the spirit of honesty, I will say that I look back on some of the classes I took and wish that I had given them more time, effort, curiosity, etc. This type of degree is definitely one where you get as much out of it as you put into it. Don’t get me wrong! I do truly believe I have learned so much from my studies and I know I will continue to learn for the rest of my career. However, I also have to admit that there were seasons that felt like pure survival-mode rather than exploring concepts and assignments to their full extent. I imagine that is the case for many MLIS students and librarians!
I also feel this in the side projects I wanted to pursue while being a grad student—primarily this blog. That doesn’t mean it is too late to get started again, though! Even when I graduate later on this year, I can look back and reflect on lessons learned during this period of my life and help prospective MLIS students / early-career librarians get a better idea of what at least one person’s experience of it was like.
For now, I will say this: being a grad student (especially while working or having any other number of responsibilities) can feel a bit like trying to keep a bunch of plates spinning at once. It can be a huge demand on your time and energy during certain seasons, and I have learned that part of making that work includes figuring out what other things in your life can survive getting neglected a bit while you shift priorities. Every situation is different, so it can be hard to give concrete advice on how to do that. I will also say that the same tricks that worked while getting my undergraduate degree (like all-nighters before due dates) were not as feasible anymore due to my age and lifestyle. And that’s okay! I really do think part of what we are also learning as MLIS students is how to engage in the professional world more generally, especially for those of us who haven’t worked for as long, and that means developing more sustainable habits in the work that we do.
In my case, that meant I had to put personal projects on pause for a while in order to let other things in my life (like that internship I mentioned) take priority. Now that things are slowing down and I get a bit of a breather before the next class starts up, I want to come back on here to make this an active blog once more! I have plenty of ideas for posts that have been stewing for a while, but I would also love to hear what my fellow library folks have been thinking about recently. And of course, I’d be remiss if I did not acknowledge that this year so far has been especially difficult for library workers. I want to encourage everyone to please take care of yourselves in whatever form that looks like, and lean on your communities so that we can all weather this storm together while working towards a better future for everyone. Every single one of you are doing such important work! Despite everything, I still hold hope that we will continue to adapt and figure out how to keep that work going for our communities who need us now more than ever.
Till next time,
Sam
