Rejuvenation

Colors are brighter, the air is crisper, everything is shining and new again.

The Open Memo is done.

I have never in my life worked so hard on a paper. I've spent at least 30 hours writing and researching it, if not more. I think this is the first time that I can truly say that I feel there is nothing more that I could have done - whatever grade I get is a result of my very best effort rather than something I might have worked more on. It is a new feeling. I still might end up getting a C, but I am at peace with that.

Tomorrow I go home to Seattle. I haven't seen the Needle or the Sound in 4 months - the longest I've ever been away. As much as I like it here, this isn't home. It will be a much needed break. I have a study group tonight and a couple of more classes tomorrow and then I'll hit the road.

Vindication

I spent the last hour battling the fourth floor printer. About every 6 pages it decided to jam. It would then instruct the cursing and redfaced poor soul who happened to be waiting for a print job (or nine) to open the back door to inspect the supposed jam, when the only way to access the jam was from the front. I could have easily ignored the jam and tried printing to a printer on another floor, but I had worked with a much heftier and more complicated printer/copier/scanner for a year and fixed jams that made these look like mere trifles. I'd be damned if I didn't just fix the effin' thing. So I did. I now have 9 crisp printed cases beside me about binding or advisory verdicts for my LRW Open Memo. And I feel vindicated. Sometimes only the small personal victories count...

I hate that it is 6:00 p.m. and the sky is already jet black. It makes the internal argument to go home where it is warm and the TV is gently blaring all the more convincing, rather than sitting in this library under fluorescent lights reading about trials in equity versus trials in law. But if I went home now nothing would get done.

I sometimes wonder what life would have been like had I chosen to follow a path more like Morgen's or Rebecca's. Morgen is in Antarctica for a few months; she's spent several quarters abroad, both in Mexico and Ecuador. Rebecca moved to Alaska and never looked back. I stayed relatively close to home; I went on my trip to France but that was fairly brief. I'm happy with the decisions I've made and the relationships I've chosen to nurture as a result of those decisions. I think I'm in law school at the right time in my life; I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. I just hope that feeling doesn't change. I want to be able to have the opportunities to make time for meaningful travel throughout my life - I hope my career allows me to so I minimize any regrets.