Flexibility

Posted October 27, 2015 by Alison Mitchell

One thing I like about being an older student is that I have some flexibility.  I’m not trying to finish SLIS super fast to get a job or move somewhere else — my job and family are already here.  I can take my time with the program and get what I want out of it.  Since I have two kids in elementary school, that flexibility is pretty important to me. 

When I entered Simmons, I expected to take three years to finish the program — two classes each semester (instead of the traditional three) and no classes in the summer, since my kids would be out of school.  It seemed like a good plan.  Then I took a three-credit short course late last spring, which put me ahead of where I expected to be.  Suddenly, I had options — should I take another short course and graduate a semester earlier than I’d planned?  Should I take only one course some semester, and pick up additional work hours? 

Which brings me to the upcoming semester.  As I’ve written, I’ve been having a little trouble wrapping my head around next semester.  I finally decided to just take one class — a class I’m really excited about — and fill my “extra” time with additional work hours (I recently joined the sub list in another town, so I’m now on the sub list at four libraries).  I’m still on track to finish the program in three years, which was my original plan.  And I have the flexibility to take only classes I truly want to take, rather than filling my schedule with classes I’m not psyched about just to finish by a certain date — and still pick my kids up from school every day.