Summer Has Arrived

Posted July 11, 2018 by Sarah Callanan

Oh my goodness a heatwave has hit Massachusetts!  If summer wasn’t here before, it has definitely arrived now.  I must admit, I’m not really a fan of excessively hot and humid weather, and I’m glad that it seems to be cooling down just a bit.  

Because of the heat, I’ve been trying to stay indoors with my beloved air conditioning as much as possible.  Between work and my summer class, it really has not been difficult.  As I mentioned in my last post, my summer class is online, and we’re fitting 14 weeks’ worth of material into 8 weeks.  The class is keeping me very busy between the readings and assignments, but I’m really enjoying learning all the new concepts and interacting with my classmates.  We’ve been learning about information organization, metadata, and as of this week, encoding standards.  I will admit, learning all the new material in the shortened time frame has been a challenge, but it has been an enjoyable one. 

One of the best parts about this class is that there are so many opportunities for discussion.  I will fully admit that when I started at Simmons, I really hesitated at taking online classes because I thought that I would be missing out on the chance to connect with my fellow students, but the experience that I’ve had at Simmons has shown me that you can have it all.  However, I am planning on taking an in-person class at some point. 

Even though work and my summer class have kept me incredibly occupied, I’ve tried to manage my time so that I can have some time to relax and unwind.  I’m slowly but surely working my way through a couple of books.  I’m one of those people who reads several books at once, but right now I’ve limited it to two- The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore and Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover.  I highly recommend both of them to anyone who is looking for a good read this summer! 

I hope everyone is having a great summer and is managing to stay cool!  Until next time!