In the fall of 2011, I embarked on the journey to a new career. I had to begin at the beginning, so I researched local colleges and universities which specialize in my area of interest and decided on Bay Path College, a small, women's college in Longmeadow, MA. The enrollment process (including financial aid) was painless, as the administrative staff is composed of a team of well-informed, can-do ladies who practically handed me the money to make my education possible. In the last days before starting classes, I learned that I had not turned in all of my medical forms, so I spent my first week of classes running around from doctor's appointments to medical labs, making a slew of phone calls to connect my college with the information they needed to approve me as a healthy student. It was an error I will not be repeating.
Adjusting to campus life was hard. At first, because of the difference between my age and that of the rest of the student body, I felt out of place and awkward. Walking around campus was like walking the gauntlet, with hundreds of curious eyes trying to figure me out. Getting myself from one class to the next, budgeting my time thoughtfully, and remembering how to most efficiently learn a giant body of new information all proved challenging. A few weeks in, though, I finally found my stride and began to enjoy the entire process. The connections being made between the various subjects I was studying were exciting; not confined to my mind, the "AHA!" moments were visceral.
Because I had not previously studied American Government, the Constitution become the central point of all learning I did last semester, as it factored significantly in not only that class but in my Introduction to Law and Violence and Non-Violence In North America courses, as well. Becoming more aware of our country's constitution immediately caused me to more highly prize the freedoms that document has awarded me, while making me a more politically aware person. I better understand the process by which our legislation is made and more clearly see the need for greater oversight of our legislative body; we, the people, need to demand more of Congress! Also, I began to understand why there is debate between those who view the Constitution as a living document, the language of which must be interpreted via the context of contemporary society, and those who cling tenaciously to the linguistic intent of those who framed the Constitution asking, "What did the Framers mean when they said..." I learned more about the American Civil Rights movement than I have ever known and feel privileged to live in a society that produced people of such magnanimity as the leaders of that movement were. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, via his judicial authority and great personal conviction, forever altered the course of race relations in America. His contribution to our society could never be overestimated. Examining the amendments to the Constitution, I was deeply moved by the fact that people just like me fought long and hard to widen the scope of language that was too vague at the time of the Constitution's creation. Due process of law and equal protection under the law, made the supreme law of the land via the 5th and 14th Amendments, are the foundation of our legal system. Imagine life in civil society without them. Without doubt, learning about the Constitutional foundation of the law illustrated clearly how necessary it is to fight to protect the very rights the Constitution gives us and affirmed for me my purpose for studying law.
I started my second semester a few weeks ago. I'm taking six classes, four of them legal studies. At this point, they are all reinforcing one another so well that I cannot remember in which class I learned what. All that matters is that I'm getting it. We don't sit around committing theories and statistics and vague hypotheticals to memory. We're just jumping in and doing it. In my Business Law class, we've been divided into groups of three and each group is going to start a business. By doing this, we will take every step together and learn about the legal principles guiding and present in the business world. In Introduction to Litigation, we are, as a class, constructing a civil litigation case which we will see to its resolution. In Legal Research and Writing, we are doing just that- researching cases, writing briefs, drafting letters, etc. Being directly hands-on makes all of the work more real- I'm not just a student, I'm a burgeoning Legal Assistant! The transformation is wondrous.
Dedicating ourselves to constant betterment is incredibly rewarding. Not satisfied to rest on the laurels of my past achievements, I feel challenged to, always, unearth the best of myself and transform what I find into a gift which can be of some service to others. It is this process which gives me a true sense of purpose and fulfillment, something I feel truly privileged to exercise.
