Post Grad Thoughts

So about two weeks ago, I officially graduated from law school. It has been a little difficult to process it all, especially with the public health crisis occurring right now. My last few months as a student were not, to say the least, anything like I expected them to be. I left school to go home for spring break, and I brought home a few more t-shirts and leggings than I normally would have. At that time, I knew going online was a possibility, as other schools had just begun to do so, but mine had not made any announcement about that yet. I figured that if we went online, we would only do so for two weeks. Mhy plan was that if we went online, I'd stay at home for an extra week, then head back to school to finish the semester.

None of that happened. My school added an extra week to spring break, went online for the first two weeks following it, then quickly made the transition to online learning for the rest of the semester. I made the decision to stay at home with my parents for the rest of the semester. What I thought was going to be a 2 week maximum trip home turned into two months just like that. I only recently went back to my apartment at school for a few days. I did not get to have those last late night study sessions with my friends, more client appointments with the clinic that I've devoted the past year too, and the fun times at bar review with my classmates that I expected to have. Even the normal day in, day out things like walking through campus on my way to the gym, I missed. Like every other school, we cancelled our graduation. We will hopefully go back later this year for an in person ceremony. But, I can't complain as I and my loved ones all have our health. We are blessed because of that.

As I transition to studying for the bar, I've been grappling with these emotions and finding motivation. Normally, graduation is a time of celebration, but this year, there was also some mourning thrown in there. After a conversation with a friend, I went back to one of my first posts from the month I started law school: Why I Am Going to Law School. A specific paragraph stuck out to me:

"So why do I want to be an attorney? I love people and want to help them. I want to make a difference in people's life and help them during some of hardest things life will throw at them. When others are putting them down, I want to lift them up. Yes, there are other ways I could do this, but my skills, knowledge, and passions best align with a legal career. I love history, and that's what many court cases are, so I cannot wait to study them. I have a good sense of reasoning and often see what others miss. But I still need that human connection in my professional career. I need to make a positive difference in the lives of others. Although I do not know what area of law I want to go into (I have it narrowed down to two or three), I do know one thing: these next three years will be incredibly tough, but unbelievably worth it. My dreams are finally coming true."

While I have changed my career path a bit, all of this still holds true. As law students and lawyers, we are given an amazing gift to help people and to positively impact their life. We help people at their worst, take on some of their stress, and hopefully can give them a better life. We have the ability to alleviate some of the hardships people face that are invariably a part of this life. And we cannot lose sight of that. We cannot waste that gift we have been given.

And yes, 1L Kelsey was right: the next three years were harder than I could've imagined them to be, but also so much better than I could have imagined. And it was worth it. So incredibly worth it. While some of my dreams have come true, what is even better is that my dreams are still coming true.