Personal picture belonging to Laurel Everitt.
Before starting this first semester as a Master of Library and Information (MLIS) student, I hadn’t been in school for about 12 years. Eight of those last years were as a stay-at-home mom. When you are putting your everything into taking care of others, it is easy to lose a little bit of yourself. Participating in this first semester has been an awakening in me. It was hard, but also has brought a lot of joy.
My past degrees were in Fashion Merchandising and Fashion Design from a mainly fashion focused school, so there was not a great emphasis on academic classes, research, and writing. Coming into this program and taking INFO200: Information Communities has been eye opening. I have had to learn an all-new skill set with researching extensively, finding peer reviewed articles, and reading academic papers. A lot of the research I have done fascinates me in a way I never thought possible. It has been quite the opposite of my previous schooling experience—but that is good! Change has been good for me.
Expanding my researching and academic writing skills will help in my future as an information specialist because I will know how to help others learn how to research and understand hard topics. Being an information specialist is about searching for information, but it is also about educating others. Passing on the skills and information I have learned is important in my future.
Laurel Everitt 
8 responses to “INFO200 Blog Post #8: Reflection”
Hi Laurel,
Thank you so much for sharing a little bit of your history and being vunerable about it. It is a big challenge to start a new path into an unknown journey, but it is inspiring to see how much you are taking from it. I can see your hard work and I definitely learned a lot from reading your blog posts on schools library this semester. Wonderful job!
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Hello Laurel,
Thank you for sharing. I’m glad that you’re having a positive experince, I know school can get overwhelming, so I’m glad to hear that this was a wonderful change.
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Laurel,
Thank you for sharing your journey with us! I can mirror everything you said in your post as I, too, took many years off to raise my two daughters before returning to this program. I learned a lot about myself through this journey.
I really enjoyed reading your posts and know that you are going to make a wonderful information specialist!
Take care!
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Hi Kim,
Thanks you! I’ve met so many of us mom’s returning to school/the work force this semester–it is nice to have that in common with so many other. 🙂
-Laurel
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Hey, Laurel!
It was wonderful working with you this semester on the 204 group project. I am happy to hear that you feel more comfortable with the various aspects of scholarly research and academic writing. I hope that the rest of your experience while attaining your MLIS degree will be fulfilling, even when difficult. I hope you are able to apply your skills and what you have learned this semester (and will learn in future semesters) to educate others. Have a wonderful next semester!
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Hi Max,
Thanks! It was great working with you this semester too. 🙂 Good luck on your next semester too!
-Laurel
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I agree Laruel. When you take some time off from school it can take some time to remeber the tools needed for assignments. One thing I realized reading some of my older papers was what a big vocabulary I had. During this course I realized that just by reading academic papers you pick up alot of writing tools and formatting examples. I appreciate that this class gives you room to experiment with your writing and understand what is needed to write a scholarly paper.
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Hi Lauana,
That is so true! I’m so glad to have had a class like this to get me back into the swing of things and learn new skills for future semesters.
Good luck with the rest of the semester!
-Laurel
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