The Last Week of Summer

Posted August 27, 2018 by Megan Ondricek

And just like that, our last golden week of summer is over. My, how golden it was. The kids and I spent our last full week before school starts enjoying some gorgeous weather and having all kinds of fun and leisure time. I could not have asked for a better summer send-off. We did all the things: nature center, aquarium, IMAX, libraries, parks, and playdates. I have LOVED being able to spend all this quality time with my two kids, unhurried, unburdened, and unscheduled. With my first child about to embark on his public school journey and the second starting preschool, it feels like we’re about to lose something that we can never get back.

For all my reluctance to leave behind these lazy summer days, I am actually quite excited for the fall and the new challenges and opportunities it will bring. Remember that exciting news I hinted about in my last post? Well…the exciting news has officially been rescinded. I had been accepted for a reference and instruction internship at a nearby university, but then the librarian in charge of the internship resigned last minute! It was a rather sudden and unforeseen change of events but I trust that it was for the best. Not having the internship simplifies my fall schedule a good deal and there’s a decent chance I’ll be able to do it next semester.

I’m really pumped for my classes up at SLIS West: User Instruction and Archives Access & Use. I’ve heard from many reliable sources now that user instruction (i.e. teaching info lit) is essential for working in an academic library and is one of the best classes for real-life job preparation. My other one is a required core class for the archives concentration and will help me further gauge whether I want to stick it out with this archives track or not. It may just depend on what classes are available in the spring. If I see any awesome technology courses being offered at SLIS West or online I may still jump the archives ship. For now, it’s full steam ahead and I’m excited to see where this journey takes me.