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Collected Item: “Back to School”

Give your story a title.

Back to School

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

It is a pdf of my acceptance letter into a graduate school program.

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

This year has been hard for a lot of people. Like many others during quarantine, I decided the jobs that I had were not right for me. Almost by chance, a friend of my wife's told her about this program for a Graduate Certificate in Archival Studies at LSUOnline. It was designed for people who already had a master's degree, but were looking to get into the archival field or further their specialization. It seemed like a good fit for me. I have an MA in history and experience working in archives, so with everything shut down it seemed like the right time to do it. It has been tough, but I'm nearing the end of the program.
One of the hardest parts for me has been that I have not been able to be as excited as I normally would be about this. I am experiencing a great deal of burnout with work, the program, and various COVID related things, but overall, I have been fortunate through this whole pandemic, and me finishing this program is proof of it. But so many people close to me are front line workers who are mentally struggling to get by from day to day. It is hard for me to post updates on my COVID success story on my social media, when my closest friends are burnt out and were not in as fortunate a position as I have been.
For me, it has been hard to celebrate my triumphs when I see some of my closest friends reaching their breaking points and feel completely helpless.

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

#NewOrleans, #Success, #Guilty, #Fortunate, #Privilage, #Change, #Career, #LSU

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

LSUOnline

Give this story a date.

2020-12-07
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