Friday, January 06, 2006

Officially a helper monkey!

So this week my big plan was get my resume reviewed by LCS and get a job strategy and to also visit our pro bono offices. Check and check. My resume is solid, now I just need to figure out where to apply. Correct answer??? Everywhere. I also had a great talk with my writing prof who gave me some great ideas for how to maximize my summer in the event that I don't get one of the 6 1L jobs available in our community.

The real win though was with the pro bono office. I wanted to get an early chance to see all the new listings, so I could cherry pick a little more. Fab plan because there was exactly ONE legislative advocacy spot. I called, I interviewed, I conquered. Let's face it, it's really more about a warm body, but the point is that it is my warm body. I don't think that I should go into any details about it here, but I will say that I think it is going to rewarding and not a little scary. As they explained my project yesterday, I kept wanting to say, but, but I'm a 1L, are you really sure... But I stopped myself. It's for the semester, and I'll be doing a lot of researching and writing and ultimately they are going to let me present the paper to the legislative committee that governs this issue. How scary is that? But in a really cool way.

I had several reasons for wanting to do the pro bono work... i do want to help, but I also want to force myself out of my comfort zone and get exposed to areas that I usually avoid. I'm a conservative/libertarian. I told the org straight up that I wasn't sure that I bought into the lobby that they are pushing, but that I was willing to work hard and keep and open mind. This is going to be challenging intellecutally, but also, I am hoping that this exposure to new points of view will be really healthy for me.

The only concern I have is that it is supposed to be a 5 hour a week gig, but with the laundry list of things I have to do, I'm thinking it is going to be more. Yeek! Time management will be everything. But then I always do tend to manage my time better when I have more to do. Let's hope that holds true.

Helper monkeys of the world unite!

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