The end of the end

My last post. I started out writing a really sappy, introspective diatribe about what this year has taught me, how confused and lost I feel, how I'm trying to have a positive attitude, blah blah blah. Instead, I would like to bid this blog and this crazy grad school experience adieu by referencing something that ALWAYS makes me happy and is a big part of who I am: my love for "The Office." I find Dwight's goodbye speech, given when he quits Dunder Mifflin, to be completely appropriate for the occasion, so here it is:

"I do not fear the unknown. I will meet my new challenges head on and I will succeed. And I will laugh in the face of those who doubt me. It's been a pleasure working with some of you, and I will not forget those of you soon. But remember, while today it is me, we all shall fall." - Dwight K. Schrute

In other words, peace out Pittsburgh - it's been one hell of a ride.

That's a wrap...almost

Well here we are. The last week of the semester. My next few days are going to be jam-packed with last minute activities/goodbyes/packing up my whole life to move. Also someone hit my car this weekend while I was parked on the Southside, and I desperately need to get it fixed before the big road trip home. Pittsburgh just can't let me go without a fight. I'll miss some things about the city for sure, but parking is NOT one of them. I can't wait to have a driveway again...

Stay tuned for my grand finale blog post before the end of the week. It's going to be a cathartic way for me to say goodbye to this whole grad school experience, a.k.a super boring to read and possibly incoherent. Excited?

Hire me please!

So I have some news - after all my ranting and raving about applying to jobs, I'm finally starting to get called for interviews! A few aren't at libraries, or even library related, but I don't care. I've learned a lot of transferable skills during this year, mainly about how to navigate databases and how to stay organized, so I would love to apply these skills in a corporate setting if necessary. However, I just had a second interview for a job today at an insurance company looking for an archivist. I figured I would apply, even though I have taken no archiving classes and it's not something I ever thought I would be interested in. Turns out that I know NOTHING about archiving, even less than I thought, which became painfully obvious during the course of the interview. But who knows? Maybe they haven't gotten many applicants with ANY library experience, after all why in the world would I be called for a second interview? I don't think it is necessarily the best fit for me, but at this point I can't be picky.

I am extremely excited about another interview though, at a public library in a very affluent town that borders mine. It's seriously the cutest place ever and minutes from my house, and it has small enough staff where I think it might actually be fun (i.e., not stressful) to work there. It might be just perfect. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, I'm sure there are many qualified applicants. But it's nice to have an interview lined up for a real-live professional librarian job! It's starting to sink in that I'm getting released into the real world soon - a scary thought, but amazing nonetheless.

Down to the wire

Wow...so my friends who were visiting for the weekend just left and it hit me that I have only one full week left in Pittsburgh. It's truly unbelievable. I also just finished the quiz which was hanging over my head all weekend, I hate that so much but my friends got here at 1 pm on Friday and left at 1pm today and I really didn't want to sit down and take the quiz while they were here. HOWEVER, now that it's done I feel so relieved. I really only have a handful of smaller assignments left to do until I can officially kiss this place goodbye. It feels so nice to have made it through grad school and have the rest of my life to look forward to. It's a totally open book, who knows what will happen, but at the very least I have my Master's degree and no one can ever take that from me. Oh yes and in the spirit of my relentless obsession with countdowns, I have 3 more blog posts after this one and I'll try to make them good! I'm trying to find stuff that I can turn to after this class is over to keep with the changes in library technology, and I found this cool little website of technology guides about library automation systems and more, maintained by the Director of Technologies at Vanderbilt University:

http://www.librarytechnology.org/

#18

While I'm patiently waiting for a chat about a lovely Search and Seize assignment to appear, I thought I'd update my blog. I know that no one reads this thing so it's been more of a stream of consciousness exercise for me, and it's actually helped me to keep on track this semester. In the spirit of this, I would like to point out that this is my 5th to last blog post ever. I knew that I would never be able to remember to post twice a week unless I counted out how many posts I would end up having to write total. So since we started a week late, that's 11 weeks x 2 which is 22 posts. This is post 18...crazy! In exactly two weeks I'll be done with school for all eternity. I always thought I would be the type of person who would love to stay in school as long as possible, maybe even to the doctorate level. Clearly this is not the case, as I can't even imagine doing that now. I am so ready for the real world (minus having a regular schedule, I've been spoiled with 4 day weekends the past few months). I only wish the real world was in a better state, that I could have my pick of jobs instead of settling for something out of pure desperation. It's hard to stay positive when faced with such a dire state of affairs, but at this point, I'm ready for any kind of change. Not being in school for the first time in 15 years will be a huge adjustment, but it's one that I feel totally ready for.

Time to relax...a little

Well this weekend was definitely more stressful than I would have liked. I knew that having to attend classes on a Saturday wouldn't exactly be a picnic, but that wasn't even the culprit this time. I just felt like so many little things kept going wrong - I had a problem with my bank account, I broke something that wasn't mine and had to replace it, I had to do a major cleaning job, and on top of that I had to wake up at 5:30 am on a Saturday and spend all day in class. And tomorrow, another week starts! Ahh! I am really at the end of my rope for this semester. I have so much going on right now between trying to finish up school, applying for jobs, getting ready to move out of my house, and just attempting to function normally as a human being (the last one has been harder than it should be these past few days! haha) Other than feeling like a big ball of tension right now, things are looking up. I will have my Master's degree in a little over two weeks, I am having visitors this weekend, and I have a great friend and family support system right now. I just keep trying to remind myself that things will eventually fall into place so I don't get discouraged and give up. I WILL get everything settled, I WILL finish school, I WILL find a job...eventually. I am so close to finishing a major chapter in my life that it would be a shame to fall apart now. Anyone out there about to graduate - STAY STRONG! We're almost there.

The home stretch

Wow...so these last few assignments that revolve around creating a web page are going to kill me. This has been a cruel reminder of how much I don't understand about computers and technology, and how far I have to go before I can consider myself even remotely literate in this area. I know that part of it is my own attitude - I just look at all these little details and immediately freak out. Even while watching the tutorials I get stressed because all the narrators sound so happy and excited about what they are doing. I get it, it's fun for some people. The appeal of creating an awesome page from scratch and mastering all the nuances of website creation is not lost on me. The first time I was able to see my American Notes work displayed in my browser, I felt really accomplished, and once I got through some initial frustrations, it was definitely a little easier than I thought. However, as much as I'd love to feel this excitement all the time, I fear that I will never possess that same lust for technology and gadgets as some of my contemporaries. In that sense I guess I'm an old lady - technological change gives me anxiety more than anything else. Hmmm...maybe I made the wrong career choice???