Taking a Moment to Enjoy the Semester

Posted October 28, 2021 by Bryanne McArdle

It feels like only yesterday that the semester started, even though I know that’s not the case.  I could get into the semantics of how short in reality a semester is, usually a mere 14 weeks, and how much shorter seven weeks are.  But debating time and how long (or what it is really) doesn’t have much of a place on a Library and Information School blog.  Unless we’re discussing the concepts of cataloging or creating dates for Metadata.

This is the first semester that I have had an on-campus course, mainly due to the pandemic.  Last year they were all online and mostly asynchronous, with the exception of one that had a synchronous lecture via Zoom.  And while it was not how I originally intended to study for my MLIS, I wasn’t too bothered by it.  I had always intended to take a mix of online and in-person courses as I wanted to continue working a day-job while working towards my degree, the pandemic just made me change the percentage I envisioned with more online than in-person.

It was weird coming into Boston for class for the first time this semester, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it.  I take public transport, and while that may seem daunting in today’s world, I am a people watcher at heart (studying cultural anthropology will turn you into one) so watching how people both interact similarly and differently between 2021 and 2019, the last time I rode the MBTA, is deeply interesting to me on many levels.

And that isn’t even getting into interacting with my fellow students or wider community for the first time in-person!  It’s been extremely nice.  Seeing us all bond together and get through classes, and the day, renews a lot of me.  It’s healing.  Although, that isn’t to say my online courses aren’t also like that either.  I could clearly see this when one of my fellow students and I bonded over being busy due to a project we had in one class, and our groupmates in another class were more than accommodating until we finished.  That level of mutual understanding is hard to find sometimes, especially today, so to see and feel it in my fellow students has been wonderful, and I’ve tried to reciprocate it the best I can. 

And that’s what I like about being halfway through a semester.  There’s just something really nice about being comfortable with the topics, your instructor, and your fellow classmates; bonding together and saying “yah, we’re gonna finish this right” as we all start to think about the weeks in front of us.