No News is Good News in NOLA

So as alluded to in previous posts, which I have tried to file away along with everything from last semester --- I like change -- and I am fully involved in a fresh new experience in New Orleans and loving it. And just as when I called my mom yesterday while my work folks were having a conversation --- she was happy to have NOT heard from me, cause she knows with me that no news is usually good news -- and means I am having an excellent time.

And I am having an excellent time and have been ever since the very last day of classes. :) I think for a minute I was still wondering a lot about next year, my last year in school and what to do to make it a fruitful and enjoyable one. Meaning not at either end of the extremes of 1st or 2nd year --- but eventually I started living in the moment and really really enjoying it.

Hawaii was nearly perfect zen - of course- but another huge benefit was that it solidifed an important friendship for me which is a huge asset to have in my life. I did work while I was away and though I came back into chaos with the case I had been working on -- good fortune came our way and the case settled, a victory for my client, the organizng group (Women's Worker Project - deals with domestic workers, part of CAAAV) and the clinic. I wrapped up my other big project, an amicus brief, and even though I sat in the office after many had already departed - I felt an enormously high level of satisfaction seeing the close of two projects that had consumed my entire existence.

Before leaving for New Orleans I got to see people who are dearly important to me and just enjoy their company - not personally absorbed with all the imbalance that was my life. I felt normal. :)

New Orleans is fantastic because I've got a stellar group of roommates whose company I absolutely enjoy and whom are my "little family." We just have fun and do summer stuff and go to festivals and drink in the evenings and grill out together. And we entertain one another and all love hip hop music and celebrate R. Kelly's music. Did I mention our five bedroom house is unbelivable? with TVs in every room - gorgeous furniture and tons of space. Its almost like a summer retreat...

Except I am working hard, but I like the hard work I am doing. I am preparing a law suit for a group of guestworkers who came to this country on a temporary visa and whose employer exploited them --- even stealing their passports. We are working hard to show that that the H2-B Visa program is a modern-form of slavery. I am working with incredible lawyers based in LA who I had the wonderful chance to meet at a two day training here and a group of community organizers here in new orleans whose dedication to the work is tremondous and all just have a wonderful personal vibe to them. I felt comfortable around everyone immediately. :)

I have been reflecting a lot on the wonderful experiences I have had in my life that made me the person I am today - and although this adventure is temporary, as is so many of the things I am involved with - I can't help but get nostaligc over both the breadth and wealth of experiences I have been fortunate to have in my life.

The work I am doing now, it makes me feel like a lawyer - it shows me that although the law is not the grand solution for most of the problems in society - it still is a tool people rely on and that now I can actually - shockingly, feel like I can help facilitate it for others. I was so unbelievably lucky to have done the clinical program and be in the Immigrant Rights clinic this year because after all the challenges involved, it developed a competence inme. Tt finally gave me this sense that I have something to offer an organization. And its not just the clinic but is also my legal education. So just like everyone has always reminded me, the one-dimensional world I work in through the school year empowers me to tackle on the world when I get to be a "whole Reena."

So I haven't had a lot of those amazing experiences that make me feel alive over the past two years, but only one more year before i re-join that world and I feel much more optimistic these days that I can make it what I want - fresh and enriching the way school never was - even if it includes a full-time job as a "lawyer"