And, Recap

It’s amazing how much can fit into three months’ time. What hits me first is the number of congratulations and abrupt good-byes.

Taking it in order, though, there was the New Mexico bar exam. A good amount of anxiety was built into that. Then there was graduation. That helped drown out the anxiety for a bit. Sara and I got married! We whisked away on our honeymoon. Thereafter we drove literally through the night to start our new life out West. And, in what now seems like a series of memories from the best of dreams, here we are. I am now a licensed attorney in the state of New Mexico. Sara is writing. We have left a lot behind us, and we certainly hope that we get to see those friends again who are now somewhere in a parallel to us, moving forward.

I am quite satisfied with my job. I love the home that we have (though we do not own it). Sara is working very diligently from our home, and she will begin her graduate studies soon. I am proud of where we are, though I know that we each had only a small part in shaping where we are and how we got here.

It’s getting to be Fall here–a little late, I would say. Soon we will head back for the holidays to say hello to family and friends. We will get a chance to let them personally know how much we miss them.

But we will also get the chance to tell them how much fun we are having in our little town out in the desert.

In Flight

I have been requested to blog because I am in transit at the moment. The captain has fixed our cruising altitude at 34,000 feet, and we are bound for Albuquerque. It is really neat to be able to be connected from this high up.

Tomorrow and Wednesday I take the bar exam. At this point, I’m pretty excited about it. Later in the day, I’ll probably be nervous about it. But when I board the flight back to Texas, I’ll be nothing but unequivocally excited for the first time in a long time. Lots of hard work and worry has paved the road for this milestone. But for the grace of God and the patience of Sara I would not have been able to accomplish this great feat.

Bar exam and graduation. That’s what’s on tap for this week. What a week it will be.

And then there’s August!

Oh, and I definitely wore my “Where Fun Goes to Die” shirt today. Unashamedly.

Big Trial

This quarter, more than any other, culminates in multiple substantial milestones. As the last quarter, that’s certainly appropriate.

The ol’ PC Partner (@pbpope) and I both wore our trial boots to the courthouse on Tuesday. We had been laboriously defending the plaintiff for months. He was without truck and income because of the two defendants we sued. We worked double-time during discovery, hoping that we would reach trial at long last. We summarily zipped through summary judgment. For some strange reason, we conducted voir dire before we had even taken our first deposition. We charged through slapping together a proposed charge. Finally, we had reached trial. After seven or eight hours, we had a verdict. We were victorious.

If this were real, I wouldn’t be giving such a summary. I might say that the jury came back in our favor and leave it at that. But this is Practice Court. I’ve never felt so accomplished in seeing something in which I have toiled come to fruition. It really is a unique experience. Only on the other side of it does the madness make sense.

As it stands, I’ve got three finals, the bar exam, and the MPRE between me and my law license. I graduate at the end of this month, the same month that I turned 24. Next month has even more excitement. Sara and I move to New Mexico and get married. It’s not at all what I had envisioned when Sara and I started this law school adventure some two and a half years ago. But it’s a great plan that God has laid out for us. I’ve had all this anxiety, hoping for things to happen a certain way, but then they happen in even more gracious ways.

In my small world, this all has been a Big Trial. And I’m all the better for it. It wasn’t quite the victory I had in mind, but I think it tastes sweeter after all the frustration, patience, and hard work (not all in equal portions, mind you).

As with all good things in my life, I did not accomplish this on my own. Support from Sara, family, my colleagues in the law, and my aforementioned PC partner have helped carry me this far. Also, the surety of attending St. Alban’s many Sundays to share in the Eucharist.

I do hope that in my justified pride at graduation, I remember to be proud first of my support system. What a great gift. I very much look forward to sharing such joy with friends and family.