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The End of All Things
It's finally here! The end of graduate school as I know it. I finished writing my final paper Tuesday night and submitted it and returned the mountains of books I checked out from the library. Hip, hip, hooray! :o) My first thought upon completing my paper was, "Now what do I do? I get to sleep? Really?" hahaha :o) This last and final paper (forever and ever!) was for my external cognate class and it was pretty tough to do because I had a rather tough semester with the whole course--dealing with a totally different department culture, a decidedly different academic focus (as opposed to my comfortable and usual practical project focus at SI), and surprise at getting a content focus that I wasn't expecting (definitely history and not necessarily practical film terminology).
I've also wrapped up my archive internship and gave them a great deliverable. I have to say, I think this was one of my very favorite classes here at SI (the Archive Practicum). It started out a little rough because I had to change my internship half-way through the semester, but my second and final internship was exactly what I needed and wanted. I'm really proud that I've been able to find an innovative solution for the Bentley Library's online exhibit for the History of Computing collections. The speakers during the semester were really interesting and I learned a lot about best practices in a variety of different types of archives, archival settings, and archive uses.
My usability evaluation group (for the class Evaluations of Systems and Services) also delivered our project to our client and class. It was a huge success! You can see our reports published online here: http://www.lib.umich.edu/usability/projects/MBooks.html. We were all really proud of the work we did in this project and talk about learning a lot! I used our reports as examples from my portfolio when I interviewed for my upcoming job with the Disney Internet Group and I definitely plan to use some of the evaluation techniques to determine which archival solutions are best for the company.
On Friday this week my parents are arriving from out-of-town and we will be going to the SI graduation ceremony and reception. I'm really looking forward to this so that my mom and dad can meet the incredible staff here at school and see some of my friends and their families too. I got my cap and gown for pictures (of course!) but I don't actually need this for Friday. Instead, it's really meant for the Saturday commencement when we'll all go hear President Clinton give the commencement address. Technically speaking, Saturday's commencement is for the undergrads, but who can pass up a chance to hear a huge speaker like this? It should be very interesting and I'm looking forward to it. Afterwards, my family and I are going to enjoy some fabulous sushi at my favorite Japanese restaurant in town. :o)
Other than all of this madness, I have been getting early cost estimates and apartment availability notices to make my Big Move to Los Angeles. My start date looks to be May 29 and I'm starting to get very excited about all of it! I'm really looking forward to living in a place where there is lots of sunshine and palm trees. I'm a tropical girl at heart, not to mention a big city and concrete lover, so this is definitely the perfect destination. :o) I will be going to LA in about a week and a half to visit my top 3-5 apartments and then will sign a lease. I am extremely happy with my salary/benefits package and my signing bonus will be more than enough to cover moving costs. It's really cool to be able to see all of my hard work pay off in the end! When I moved into my apartment in August 2005, I vowed that when I graduated I would get a fantastic job that would pay for someone else to haul all of my boxes for me. :o) Apparently wishes do come true! It still hasn't fully sunk in yet that I have, in fact, landed my dream job right out of grad school. I don't think it will really seem real until I get there and start to get settled into my new office.
I'm also busy filling out forms ("exit interviews") for my student loans. I'll have to start paying those in 6-9 months depending on the type of loan. But I'm not worried about that in the least because I'll be able to afford it now--that's why I went to grad school, after all. It's definitely given me a step up in the world. There is also the SI alumni information that I've been browsing through. I just updated some information today online and checked the nifty box that puts me in the student-alumni network at SI. I have received invaluable help from some alumni in the couple of years that I've been here, so now I figure that it's my turn to pass it on. :o) I even received some help with some alumni who are listed in LA--they just gave me some great housing advice last week. It's pretty cool that even though I didn't go to school at the same time as these folks, that they are totally willing to help me out simply because we went through the same program. It's kind of like an extended family, which is really comforting.
So, with hindsight now, my words of advice are this: If you know you want something, then just go for it. Having an idea of what you want is the best thing to help guide you through grad school. Even if you don't know what you want, exactly, the act of simply taking charge of your own path will make you a lot more motivated, successful, and content when all is said and done. And with that, I will sign off here. I'll be posting another blog or two before I leave Ann Arbor and will be winding down my job here with SI Admissions as well. So, feel free to send me any emails but pretty soon I'll be forwarding messages on to some current folks at SI. I will definitely not be answering emails for SI Admissions after May 20 which will be so sad! But I wish everyone the best of luck!
And now without further ado, I must sign off! Today is my last day at the Knowledge Navigation Center so it's a busy day. Until next time...
-maw :o)
Posted by maryaw at April 25, 2007 12:31 PM
