Grad School is a Commitment, But One I'm Willing to Keep 🎓✨
my thoughts on time, priorities, & balance - welcome back to The Slush Pile!
This newsletter, which has now been ongoing for over two years, has seen me through many important personal and professional life changes. I’ve quit jobs, published hundreds of pieces of writing, won fellowships, gotten my own column, been rejected by journals and lit mags, not been accepted into my dream MFA program, and gotten accepted into the only grad school program I applied to. As we reach Issue 29, I’ve now been in school for a little over a month and I wanted to take this time to look back and reflect on how this program is changing my life, and what I’m learning about time, schedules, and commitments.
If you didn’t know, I’m now a virtual master’s student at Syracuse University in their graduate Library and Information Science program. If you want to become a librarian or archivist, you need this degree to work in a number of different settings including academic, public, and specialized libraries. At the moment, my area of interest is Children’s and Youth services, in order to make a difference in shaping young people from an early age through diversity iniatives and making library services not only accessible but aimed at marginalized communities. We’re only halfway through the first quarter but I already know that this is exactly the program I need to be in, that I’m learning so much, and that I’m looking at the world in new and more critical ways.
In case you’re wondering, this is by no means a sign that I’m giving up on writing or that you shouldn’t expect more creative projects from me any time soon. While it’s true that I have less time to dedicate to my craft from day to day and often feel exhausted by the time nighttime comes around, I feel ever more motivated to tell stories, share my truth, and encourage others to do the same.
In fact, I’ve come to find that librarianship and writing are inexplicably tied and have much more to do with each other than we think. It’s not just the link we all think of, the one where librarians host storytimes, book clubs, and author talks but also in the less obvious ways, like how people learn, how they seek the information they need, what kind of information they need, and how representation plays, or should play a role, in everything a library does.
Librarianship, as you might’ve guessed, remains a white-majority field both in library school (which I can personally attest to based on the demographics of my classes) and on the ground in the libraries you patronize, oftentimes alienating non-English speakers, immigrants, refugees, unhoused communities, and others who I’d argue the library is supposed to serve. That doesn’t mean we give up on libraries; just by my mere presence in the program, I’m already contributing to the systematic change that needs to happen across the nation and opening doors for others to follow. It’s up to us to appreciate our libraries for what they are but also recognize that just like other systems, they need to radically transform in order to serve everyone.
And so far, I absolutely love what I’m learning about and am anxious to put it into practice. One major shift for me is to stop seeing libraries as these socialist, progressive institutions that stand tall against systems of inequity, racism, xenophobia, and inaccessibility. It’s been good for me to see them as any other flawed system, one that often replicates the societal, economic, and geographical inequities outside the library doors, that perpetuates racist, Western ideals about what information is valued and how it’s archived, that should and can be transformed from the inside out. I will always love libraries and am in awe of the work we do, but a system can only change if we’re aware of what’s wrong and are willing to put in the effort to make it right. And even more so, I’m excited for what the new few terms hold for me and how much more I still have to learn (fingers crossed I finish the program in a year and a half!).
But as anyone who’s ever been in a master’s program will tell you, it’s a huge time commitment and it hasn’t always been easy. True, I haven’t had any emotional breakdowns yet. But there have been many late nights putting off dinner to finish up an assignment, staring at the syllabus and my computer screen until my eyes hurt, writing discussion post after discussion post, dreading the class breakout rooms, getting confused with APA citations and using a citation generator but not entirely trusting it either and fearing my professor will call me out on it. Strangely enough, doing virtual school for the last year and a half of undergrad, as much as I hated it at the time, did prepare me for this moment when it’s the only way to attend class, meet other students, and submit assignments. And, for what it’s worth, it’s been clear from conversations with other students that they’re not entirely sure what’s going on either and this is harder than they should it would be.
Outside of work and school, I don’t have as much time as I’d like to write and work on the projects I feel excited about. I can’t tend to my puppy and his needs 24/7. I forget to text friends back and procrasinate for days trying to write a letter. But I’m getting better at not letting my studies completely overtake my life. I still manage to organize workshops and classes, host my podcast, dedicate time to my crochet craft, watch new shows and movies, play with my puppy in the evenings, read books I love, spend time with my family and loved ones. I’m accepting my desire to be productive while also taking care of myself and what I need.
If nothing else, his period of my life has allowed me to expand my capacity for knowledge, recognize my love of learning, practice being kind to myself, and not putting my other passions—storytelling, crafting, playing—on hold. Grad school is a commitment that is opening up so many new doors for me and I couldn’t be more excited for what’s coming.
notes from the writer’s desk ✍️
my favorite recently pub’d pieces:
updates:
I have an in-person workshop coming up this week! If you’re in the LA area, I’ll be hosting a queer love letter writing workshop in collaboration with Junior High LA in Glendale! We’ll be doing some cute journaling prompts and writing love letters to our loved ones. All stationery supplies provided!
My crochet shop launched its new collection! If you haven’t heard, I have my own crochet shop Sofíe’s Yarn and we just released our love letter launch! If you love handmade crochet goodies and accessories like hair ribbons, wallets, purses, book sleeves, decorative pillows, bookmarks, and more, be sure to check out our new collection!
I’m a weekly columnist, y'all! Every week, I’ve been writing for Syracuse’s student newspaper The Daily Orange. In my most recent piece, I discussed white feminism and the need for intersectionality in the entertainment industry. Be sure to follow me on social media to keep up with my weekly essays, which will focus on pop culture and media.
I’m so excited to announce the upcoming publication of my debut children’s book!! The book will spotlight past and present queer heroes from Latin America and the U.S. and is forthcoming from Jessica Kingsley Publishers. More info and details to come soon! In the meantime, please read this thread I wrote about the project.
resources:
Looking for book recommendations? Check out my Bookstagram and TikTok to keep up with what I’m reading and loving right now! On TikTok, you’ll also get more snippets of my everyday writing life and lifestyle/fashion content. See you there!
other stories i’m loving 📖
currently reading:
The Waves Take You Home by María Alejandra Barrios Velez
currently watching:
Bob’s Burgers S7
currently listening to:
“No Love (with SZA)” by Summer Walker
all my love,
sofía xx
So proud of you, Sofía! And love what you said about dismantling the idea that libraries are perfect. We can only make things better when we break the illusion of feigned inclusion 💖