Monday Motivator: The Jolly Librarian’s Thoughts for Graduates

 

At this time each year, I write the Jolly Librarian’s Thoughts for Graduates. The post is a little sad for me this year since we will not have a face-to-face ceremony due to the pandemic. To be honest, I only attended one of the graduation ceremonies for my various degrees. Still, I know it is meaningful for many students, especially for some of our nontraditional students. Also, as a faculty member and now a dean at our college, I find it especially touching as I see ‘my’ students go through the line.

Still, I want to share my graduation thoughts. I have three pieces of advice.

• You may be disappointed that you will not participate in a live commencement, walk through the line, hug mentors, take pictures with classmates, and cry with families. It is perfectly okay to feel disappointed. It would be a little strange if you didn’t. So don’t feel bad about feeling bad.
• BUT remember the ceremony is not the degree. The work has still been done. The lessons have still been learned. And the skills learned will still transfer to the next level of education and/or to a career. You did it!
• We are living through a historic time. Scholars and scientists will study this period for generations. This is a time to document. Later scholars will want to know how we modified our lives, what we feared, what we dreamed, and how we coped. Leave a written record for your children and your grandchildren.
• A comma is not a period. These past few months have felt strange to us all. It seems that normal time has stopped. We have had to adjust to new ways of doing things from going to class to walking into Costco. In some ways, because this virus is a new mutation and we don’t understand it yet, it can feel like this time will never end. But sometimes clichés are clichés because they hold true: The only thing constant in life is change. This too will pass.

The hardest part of this time for me professionally is that I did not get the chance to say goodbye to the graduating students who are library regulars.  And even though I didn’t get to say this year, I hope they know how proud I am of each and every one of them.