January 7: First Class

[kinetic_elaboration]

First day of class today! It was pretty straightforward, just introductions and going over the syllabus. In a perfectly ironic way, we had tech issues immediately (not mine), which helpfully burst any bubble of intimidation I guess. Then we spent some time awkwardly talking to each other. At least, my group was awkward.

Then we spent the rest of the class going over the syllabus. I felt fine until the last half hour or so, when the sheer amount of information, especially dates and deadlines, started getting to me a little. This particular class has a lot of assignments but they’re very small: a 2-page paper here, a 10-minute presentation there. Sometimes here and there on the same day :/. One short-ish paper at the end. The professor did say at one point that she knew a lot of us worked and she really wanted this to be as straightforward as possible. I shall try to take that to heart.

Anyway, there being SO MANY assignments makes me feel a little inundated, as I put them all in my calendar and take that bird’s eye view. But any given one isn’t that big a deal or worth that much. I am trying to remind myself that I can write two pages in my sleep. The presentations worry me a little more but I’m trying to be optimistic: I can do a decent presentation; it’s actually a good work skill to practice; I can hype myself up with interest in what I’m talking about. I do like talking about library stuff! Like, this class was all general stuff, I am only getting glimmers of what actual library nerds gathering together for 2.5 hours at a time feels like. But I think–good?

It’s just one day at a time, and learning to schedule. Learning to separate myself from a thing when I’m done working on it and balance different categories of things without guilt. Also probably learning to spend my weekends better… I’m actually kind of worried about it. Will my anxiousness about getting stuff done outweigh my desire to vegetate away the time when I have a big chunk of it?

Eh. It’s getting so late. I still need to get some other stuff done…