Tuesday

My dad read my blog, and liked it. I am glad that I was able to write it. I just started to write, and the story evolved. I wish I had time to write books, but right now I am working on getting my career on track. The Bar Exam is in less than two weeks. I am making trips to both my favorite coffee house and the library at a local campus.

It is so wierd to be back on a college campus. I actually began my educational career there, oh..so many years ago. And, How Time Flies! I feel so old when I look into the faces of those young kids. I wonder how old they are, because to me, none of them look old enough to drive, or vote! Since I started college at that campus, I transferred to a different college, then graduated, and moved on to Law School. Since then, I have worked in the environmental field, moved onto clerking for a Judge, and then learning how to practice law. My mom says it is funny to her that lawyers are always "practicing". "Can't they get it right?" She inquires. Ha. Ha. She jabs at me alot. She really enjoys it. I believe through the years, I have learned how to self-protect and jab back. In my family, it is sport. Who is on their toes? Rarely me.

The field of law is very challenging. I love it! I absolutely love all of the issues that we are faced with in our office from day to day. I love going to court. I don't always love the way the judge's rule. I understand that often, rulings are political. In my job, you have to always determine the other side's agenda, as there is always an agenda. Don't be fooled by thinking that can't be possible.

When I go to work in the morning, each day, I pass a government subsidized housing project. There is a black man, who never appears to be particularly happy, standing on the street, in the same place, right before you go under the underpass. He sells newspapers. He is out there in the sweltering summer heat, and in the bone chilling cold. He is working. Every morning, I have the urge to stop my car and tell him that I appreciate that he works every day without fail. I know that selling papers is not easy, and he doesn't earn too much money, but the fact is that he is working and I respect that. Across the street from where he stands, there are usually a few kids gathered, plotting the trouble they are going to get into that day. They look bored. I wonder if they are employed. I wonder if they are in school; doing something with their lives. I want to stop and talk to the kids, too. I don't know what I would say.

Maybe I would tell them that I have worked since I was fifteen, and it hasn't been easy. I would like to tell them that the most important thing about working is earning your self-respect. I wonder if they have self respect, but it doesn't appear so to me if they are standing around on a corner, looking bored, especially that early in the morning. If they were not working, I would tell them that millions of people have risked life and limb, and have traveled to America with nothing, for hopes to be able to live and work in a free market economy.

One time I was asked to leave a job. I did not know what to do, as it came somewhat unexpectedly. I made the trip to the local unemployment office, in order to utilize their job placement program. I always believe that you have to utilize every resource available while searching for work, so I was hopeful that would increase my chances of finding something. The job placement coach advised me that if he were me, he would stay at home and collect his unemployment checks instead of worrying so much. Ladies and Gentleman, that is what is WRONG with our system. I have never been so peaved at anything else in MY LIFE. I thanked him for his time, and went home and found a job within two days on my own. It was not what I wanted to do, and I was not making any money to brag about, but I was working. You, taxpayers of this State, were not paying me to sit at home and flip channels.