"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.