Preparing for my next adventure
Article • 537 Words • IndieWeb/Meta-blogging, Career, 2026 • 04/07/2026
My Pages This Post Links To:
My submission to the April 2026 IndieWeb Carnival on Adventure hosted by Pablo (lifeofpablo.com).
There are 546 words in this article, and it will probably take you less than 3 minutes to read it.
This article was published 2026-04-07 00:00:00 -0400, which makes this post and me old when I published it.
This is my submission to the April 2026 IndieWeb Carnival on Adventure hosted by Pablo.
I always thought it was a bit cheesy on LinkedIn when people would say “For my next adventure…” when talking about moving to a new company. However, as I start to plan out what my future might look like, I do really find it to be a beautiful (and useful) metaphor to think about.
While I do not love work, I do want to reclaim it for myself since I will certainly be at it for 30+ more years. I currently work in tech as a Full-Stack Data Engineer and have been doing so for the past almost four years after going to school for Computer Science and Philosophy. Before working in tech, I had wanted to be a Software Engineer since I was in middle school. While I still love programming, AI-prompted changes to the industry as well as the administrative/BAU tasks of Software Engineering have begun to wear me down a little bit.
A benefit that my employer provides is that they pay up to $5,250 annually toward education expenses which does not count as taxable income. While in college I briefly flirted with the idea of doing a PhD (as many academically-enamored naive youth do), but ultimately decided against it because I didn’t really have a good enough reason to do it versus entering industry. But recently, partly on a whim (that had been stewing for two years in the back of my mind), I applied to one (1) graduate program. And I got in! Starting this fall I will be enrolled in an online Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program while I continue working.
I’ve always loved libraries and have been captivated by books and reading my entire life. I think being a librarian would be a really cool way to be involved in my community and have a tangible positive social impact.
I love libraries and have much respect for librarians, my grandmother was a school librarian for over forty years. In middle school, I was friends with our school librarian, Ms. McNabb. Whenever the school media center got new books, she would always tell me about them and ask me if I had read them before, to which many times I would respond, “Yes” very sheepishly. My high school librarian didn’t really like me that much because I would always hang out in the library with my friends and we would eat in there sometimes. - Libraries And Starting My Own?
It will take me about three years of taking two courses a semester to finish the program and a lot could change in that time. There is AI, government funding to public institutions like schools and libraries, and a million other things that could happen. Even if I don’t (get to) become a librarian, I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity to further my education and learn about something that has such an outsized impact on my life. When I left undergrad, graduate school was no longer on my radar, so I am excited about this adventure (see: sidequest-maxxing), and to see what paths it opens up for life to take me :)