I graduated! (Almost. We’ll get there). This past Sunday I walked in my MLIS (or as the kids* are calling it these days, MSI) graduation ceremony.
The gown was weird and made me look like a balloon, and I was sweating profusely the entire time and it turns out I’m no longer suited to wearing heels after 3 years of only flats; but all that was beside the point as I got to walk across the stage while my name was called and my family cheered in the stands. I got to stand proud with my son watching as I achieved something I’d been working and sacrificing for for 2 years. Also, I got a pin, and I am nothing if not a sucker for “Flair”!
The caveat, the “almost” part of this is that a little over a week before my scheduled graduation date, with gowns rented and tickets received, I got an email from the Director of Student Services for my college, telling me I was not yet eligible to graduate because I needed three more credits. Cue panic! After an email and a call, I was assured that at this late date I would still be allowed to walk in my graduation, I would just have to take those final three credits over the summer and would receive my actual diploma dated July 30th, instead of May 1st. It seemed I was not the only graduate to have this problem, a problem stemming from the fact that FSU only requires 30 credits for graduation with an MS, while my degree program requires 36. The Registrar had sent me an email telling me to apply for graduation, which was approved by the Registrar, but flagged too late by my college. So, with this compromise, I decided to do an Internship for my final three credits, right here at UF Smathers Libraries.
In true Silver Lining fashion, this is actually working in my favor. I have long wanted archives experience as archives fascinate me. I love reading other people’s mail and diaries it turns out, especially people from the past, so I looked for archives classes at FSU but never found any to take. So my internship will be with an old family friend who works in UF’s archives, learning about archival practices and putting those principles into practice with LGBTQ collections that need processing. I could not have asked for a better opportunity if I had designed it from the ground up, and I would never have had this opportunity except for this snafu with my graduation. So, in a way, I’m almost grateful. It’s going to be a lot of work (12+ extra hours of work every week 😭) but I’m going to be having so much fun and learning so much I doubt I’ll even notice. I am so grateful to my colleagues who have put together this learning experience on short notice, and my supervisors who are being gracious about allowing me time during the day to do this work. I am surrounded by kind and helpful people at this job, and I feel truly blessed.
Anyway, May the Fourth be with you, and I hope your career or school can be as kind to you as it has been to me!
- [Footnote] Sometime between the time when I applied to study for a Masters of Library and Information Science at FSU and the time when I will receive my degree…FSU decided to change the degree to a Master of Science in Information. I am extremely salty about this because the industry standard is to call it a MLIS or MLS, with Library firmly in the name of the degree because we work in libraries. But no, I will forever have a degree with Library nowhere in the name. The degree is the same, but the name is misleading and I Don’t Like It.