Status Quo

Time for a happy blog update!

Well, not happy, but, maybe less dramatic?

Anyway, so, it's Monday again and I'm taking a small breather before going balls out with my contract notes and outlines. And criminal law, too. And...yeah, you catch the drift.

I start out my days by getting up at 7:30 with the iHome blaring "Me and Bobby McGee" or "Morning Mood". I'm out of the house by 7:55 and at the bus stop ten minutes later.

Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen, well, Mondays I start out with CivPro.

First day, I got back home and was like, 'Hey, this stuff's pretty interesting."

Next day, I was like, "MY MIND IS FULL OF FUCK"

I'm going to have to really buckle down if I'm going to come close to getting something resembling a grasp on the subject.

CivPro flows into Torts I, which is basically civil law suits. It's a tough class but manageable if you're always several cases ahead, but God help you if you say "I'm confused." That shit don't fly. It's fun, though. The professor is very challenging but very approachable, too.

On Mondays and Wednesdays I have LRW. LRW sort of complements CivPro in the sense that they form the frijoles and tortillas of what we'll be doing as lawyers eventually...but CivPro is 4 credits and Legal Research and Writing is 2 credits. Don't know why that is.

Then the other two classes, on Tuesday and Thursday, are Criminal Law and Contracts. Both are taught by very passionate professors that know how to get the class laughing...and studying.

The classes are hard, though. I can easily say I've worked more in two weeks than I have in three years of an undergraduate. I originally thought, well...I did come from a liberal arts background so it would be a given, but then I realized that some of my peers who came from science and business fields were saying the same thing. Law school's proving to be the great equalizer.

As far as my brain goes...I come home from class and I'm as tired as I was when I pulled my 12-hour school/work shifts at UTB/TSC, and I only have, at most, three classes a day! :O There's just sooooo much learning to be done. It's almost as if I have a headache going on every time I come back home, but it doesn't hurt, but it's an odd feeling. I feel the mechanisms in my head retooling themselves as the legal education begins to set in.

I feel that I have to look at words more carefully. Even simple words like "promise" have different meanings that could fill up three or four pages. When I go out and stuff, I think in law school terms and I'm sure my classmates do the same thing. Just the other day my friend called me up to ask me for help moving a couch, the question was phrased not as "Hey, what're you doing Friday? I need some help." but as something like..."Would you be willing to forbear your legal right to free time after school on Friday in exchange for a free meal?"

I might start sounding like that, too. I am now even more aware about the things I say and the things I write. One word can make all the difference.

Going back to school stuff, I really like my colleagues (can't call them classmates). They're from all walks of life and all parts of the state and country. I think I've mentioned that before. Cliques have formed but I'm shying away from them. Yeah, I have people I hang out with, but class cliques...bleh, not my style. I'm polite and respectful to everyone (stop laughing, I am!) that I encounter because, well, you just never know.

Though, funny thing, some of my law school buddies, a few days after we began bonding, we were studying and then we decided to tell each other what each other's first impressions of the other were. Two of them agreed that I was some rich, arrogant, Mexican boy because of the way I confidently spoke and carried myself in class.

Two pet peeves, though:

1. NO ONE SAYS SAN JACINTO LIKE IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE SAID. It's been like four or five times already that I get on the bus and the following conversation takes place:

Me: Hi, San Jacinto and Polk, please.
Bus Driver: Where?
Me: San Jacinto and Polk.
Bus Driver: Where, again?
Me: San Jacinto street, you know, downtown? Next to Fannin?
Bus Driver: OH! Sin Ja-seen-toe!
Me: yeah.

2. People really don't respect pedestrians in downtown. I mean, seriously, you guys. THE WHITE MONITO MEANS I HAVE THE RIGHT TO USE THE CROSSWALK AND YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS INVADING IT.

I've met one celebrity already, too. Sister Helen Prejean. She is the author of 'Dead Man Walking' and a very talented speaker...even if she spent a little too much time plugging her new play. I saw her speak during an n inter-faith (or rather, inter-Christian and one rabbi) conference at Hobby Center that I was helping usher in. Pretty cool stuff.

Oh, and another thing, people seem to be very nice here. The other day I was at a bar, and someone accidentally bumped into me. They said sorry, and excuse me right after that. And then when I bumped into someone a bit later in another bar, they said, excuse me, too. You don't get that kind of civility back home at certain establishments. If you go to say, the bar, and you're trying to move through the crowd, you're invisible to everyone else. By invisible I mean that people will try and walk through you, and then suddenly become very temporarily aware that there is another slob of matter in front of them. Then they just push past the obstruction without so much as a glance.

To close, I'd like to say I've had a lot of fun in Houston and MMMM SKYSCRAPER I LOVE YOU.

Now, on to sleep...

"It's not about you anymore"

Not sure how to start this off, but I'll give it my best.

This is a whole different animal I'm facing. I finally figured out my bus routes (yay) and I'm considering keeping a running .doc somewhere about the interesting people I meet on my way to downtown Houston.

Law school officially started on Wednesday, but there were two days of orientation before that, and orientation could be summed up in the words of one of my professors:

"It's not about you anymore."

It was in an introductory speech at the beginning of orientation and the phrase stuck with me.

I'd say the phrase is a little bit bittersweet.

I was no longer a child. I was on my own. I had left the Valley and the comfort of home far behind.

I was free.

But what is this freedom?

Freedom, to me, was not the opportunity to go wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted, to do whatever I wanted to whoever I wanted.

Freedom for me was the freedom of choice. The freedom to choose to break the chains of my past and bind myself with the chains of my future. The minute I swore, on my honor, that oath of professionalism, was the minute that my life stopped being about me entirely.

2010 was the year I had to be selfish, the year I could have turned my back on my new path, the year I could have completely squandered. But I stuck by it, and I still had a chance to back out when South Texas came a-calling, but I didn't, and I never intended to.

Orientation was basic training, and law school is going to be my own personal World War, a war that I volunteered for because I know that it was the best way to reach what I was destined for.

And what was I destined for?

Service.

Not a lot of people know about this, but, years ago in my first missions trip, I asked God what He wanted from me. It was there in that hillside, an hour away from civilization, that I heard the mountains tremble and move and a voice inside me said: "Be a leader."

What better way to be a leader than by serving others?

It's not about me anymore because every minute I spend in class today will be spent with one eye focusing on my notes and the other eye looking three years from now at the client who will be sitting in front of me.

Now, law school itself...really hard to explain. It's challenging, it's interesting, it's stimulating, it's cut-throat, but the faculty and staff are willing to help out and fellow students are awesome as well.

:>

It's not just about me anymore. It's about those who I left behind, and those that will come in the future.

First days in Houston

So far, so good.

I still need to dick around with the bus schedules, but other than that, I'm ready to go.

Just that. Not excited, not nervous, not scared, just ready.

And, looking at the syllabus from two of my courses, I need to be ready.

Hard part's getting the body used to waking up early. Hopefully by Sunday I'll have a more normal rhythm going on.

As to the city itself, well, what can I say?

It's diverse. TRUE diversity. I'm not awestruck by it, given the fact I've spent a fair enough time in Houston already and noticed how everything is, BUT now I'm looking at the city through the eyes of a resident. I'm no longer just crashing here for a day or two while visiting friends. I live here now, and that puts a spin on things.

Off to kill some time and enjoy my last breaths of free air before marching off to war.