The Simmons Equation

Posted April 6, 2026 by Abby Edgecumbe

Going to Simmons ends up involving a lot more than going to school. While yes, I go to class and do homework and stress about final projects, the Simmons equation is more complicated. Kind of like an upper-division math class. Making and maintaining friendships, navigating the city, searching for work, networking, hobbies; all these things merge and form this crazy equation with square roots, imaginary numbers, exponents. And coming from a girl who hasn’t taken nary a lower-division math class in over seven-ish years, that’s saying something.

For my first post on the Snippets, I thought I’d walk you through a day of me trying to solve that equation.

The day I’m writing this, a Thursday, begins at the very unpleasant hour of 5:30am (if you are a recovering 11am waker-upper, you will understand the significance of this for me). On Thursdays, I work four hours at my job at the Schlesinger Library in Cambridge, beginning at 9am. Turns out, I like a morning, so I get up with enough hours to shower, watch a couple episodes of whatever 20-minute show I’m currently watching, make an overcooked omelet, brew a latte with my infamous moka pot, blow dry my bangs, and ponder my outfit for an embarrassing length of time considering how average it will inevitably turn out to be. This morning, I sent a couple of emails to public librarians in my area to request a casual informational interview– I’m trying to get a better sense of public librarianship in the city! Then I catch my bus to Cambridge, which takes about 40 minutes, so now you understand that abysmal wake-up time.

At work, I’m still relatively new and learning the ropes. I spend these few hours asking my colleagues many, many repetitive questions and speculating about what project researchers might be using the archival materials for. 

After work, I rush to the Red Line to begin my commute to Simmons for class, which involves a transfer to the Green Line. To prospective students: please do not fear a long work/school commute! 40 minutes on the train is not the same as in a car, and as someone who moved here from a rural area, trust me, it’s normal. I shied away from many-a housing option because I thought 30 minutes was too far. It’s not.

I spend my time on the train reading or listening to Radiohead very dramatically. This week it was a combination of Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur and “Fake Plastic Trees.” Odd combo, I grant you. When I get to class, I’m a happy camper. I share my Thursday class with a couple good friends, and it’s always nice to see them. One of said friends is a participant in my weekly mahjong night, and we spend the few minutes before class begins discussing what overly-complicated drink recipe we want to try this week. 

My Thursday class is taught by Dr. Cynthia Landrum, who joined SLIS last year as the Allen Smith Visiting Scholar in Residence at Simmons SLIS. Coming from such esteemed experiences as being the acting director of IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services), Dr. Cyndee has been a wonderful and invaluable resource as I begin to navigate the administration side of public libraries. The other day during lecture she made a reference to Panic! at the Disco, so you know she’s a real one.

After class, I catch the Green Line home. I sit next to someone who is also reading, and I wonder what they’re reading but I can’t look because it will be very obvious. I imagine it’s something cool and foreign, or maybe a volume in the For Dummies series. When I get home, I’ll read some more, press tofu for dinner, and try to make a dent in my reading for LIS 453: Collection Development and Maintenance. Then, I’ll write this blog post and that’s all she wrote!

I hope this glimpse into the PEMDAS of my Simmons lifestyle is helpful in some way to you. Simmons offers great opportunities to its students, from a job (found, of course, on the SLIS Jobline) to connections with professors like Dr. Landrum. All the busyness is so worth it, even when the girl next to me on the Red Line won’t stop coughing and sneezing in my face.