What in the world was I thinking?

That is what I seemed to be saying to myself throughout the day. What in the world was I thinking when I first started going through the collection? Today I finished making the pathfinder/finding aid, and all that is left to do is to go through it one more time to make sure that everything make sense. It is a great feeling of accomplishment to get one more step done and being that much closer to the final product.

But creating this pathfinder has given me an opportunity that I did not even think about. Because it is my first collection, I can see my own progress. I can see the way I went through everything, and how my decision process of what is important or not evolved. The first couple of folder just kind of had everything thrown into it, in no order, with no system, and stuff was put together that apparently made sense at the time, but now I got nothing. And I saved everything. I was/am afraid to throw out stuff, but the first couple of folders had material in there that is beyond irrelevant, aka a post-it saying "call me" stuck to a blank piece of paper. Then came the folders were I was more confident in what I was doing, but still didn't realize that I should probably put documents into any type of order. Some folders had half the documents within it in chronological order, and then the rest just... there. By the end of the day I was sure that the day I worked on that section I had a brain fart. Going through those folders again was interesting though. It gave me a second chance to go through the material, organize it, and take out material that I can now tell is irrelevant. I essentially got to process the same material twice, see what I have learned, and see how my methods and confidence have progressed. Then going through the final section, it was a lot more streamlined and made sense. That was a relief.

Today was a good learning experience. I don't know if I have accurately put into words how I felt today, however. It was helpful to get a second look through this collection and see how my skills have grown and developed. It gave me more confidence in what I am doing, and allowed me to see where I started from and where I am today. It was an interesting/weird/helpful/cool day.