Briefcase on the Kitchen Table

So, tomorrow (barring anything crazy) I graduate from law school. Holy smokes. I will sign my name Christine E. Archer, J.D. These letters. They are pretentious and yet, if done correctly, should be humbling at the same time. Lawyers are officers, servants, of the court. That whole “with great power comes great responsibility” thing. Knowledge is power and I feel that with all of this new found knowledge from three years of law school comes the responsibility to use it to help people.

Being the slightly hyper-organized individual I am, I love lists. I already wrote a post about the fear of the unknown future. So here is a backwards-looking list about the highs and lows of the last three years.

1) Grad school is like marriage boot camp. Avery and I both entered into graduate school (he a PhD program) immediately following our wedding (as in three days after the wedding). Grad school is a high-stress, 60-80 hours a week job. We are better for it.

2) Sleep is wonderful. I was never much of a sleeper before grad school. I mean, I needed sleep but I have always been an early-to-bed-early-to-rise kind of person. The last three years, when sleep was not as plentiful, I have come to love it.

3) Pleasure reading is a gift. In the last three years I have read (no exaggeration) thousands of pages of materials. It is reported that law school is the single most reading-intensive graduate program on which a person can embark. This has meant there has been next to no time for pleasure reading other than the ten minute train ride in the morning. I was a total book nut when I was little. I would read ANYWHERE. I am so looking forward to reading just for the fun of reading again. My eyes are excited about that prospect too, as the prescription in my glasses has changed because of all of the work-related reading (seriously, my eye doctor started doing special tests on me the moment he found out I was a law student and lets just say all of the fine print has not been kind on the eyes).

4) Family and friends are wonderful. One of the scariest things about starting school was the prospect of being so far from my hometown and my very close knit family. Phone calls, facetime, letters, you name it. I still hate not seeing them as much but I know my family is proud of what I have done here and that means a lot.

5) The Bar Exam scares me (enough said… this will be tackled in July).

6) Loss is hard no matter what part of life you are in. In the three years since Ave and I have been in St. Louis my grandmother died, Avery’s Uncle Mark died, and a very good friend of ours, Chris, died. The only one that was anticipated was my grandmother’s. Lets just say, just because you get older, loss does not get easier.

7) It’s all an adventure. I have no idea what I will be doing in six months let alone six years. While that can freak me out if I think too much about it, it is also exciting. While I am not particularly good at being spontaneous, I am learning to roll with the punches more and more.

That’s it in a nutshell. Tomorrow will be exciting and slightly nerve wracking. I called my mom the other day right before my last final and told her that, since she was the first person I told I wanted to be a lawyer (my junior year of high school) she was the last person I wanted to talk to before completing my final exam of law school. She, being the truly fantastic mother that she is, recalled the exact moment I told her, sitting at a Mexican restaurant in Fort Wayne. It is a crazy thing to have a dream for nearly ten years and be sitting here on the brink of being called a “lawyer”. I am sure tomorrow is going to fly by but I will try to savor every moment.

Sincerely,

Christine E. Archer, J.D. (almost)