1L: Check

Well, it's done. My first year of law school is now under me belt, and they tell us it's the hardest year, so that's promising. Although, not to undermine the difficulty of the year, people often wondered why I wasn't going crazy and super overwhelmed by everything. I always reminded them that I use to teach junior high and after doing that for five years, there's nothing I can't do. But as long as we're being honest, I did have my moments of being overwhelmed. Finals week certainly brought that out in me, I just wished it had served better to inspire me to study more. It usually just meant wast more hours playing Words with Friends on Facebook. I guess we all need a coping mechanism. Apparently Facebook and M&Ms are mine.  Hopefully next time I will choose something a little healthier, like running.

As I reflect back on the year, I had some really good experiences. First, I really loved that the school started having the 1L professors take the students out to lunch. It has been a really nice experience getting to know the professors in a more intimate setting. Not as a part of the program, but from a fundraiser auction purchase, the culmination of these experiences was getting to have lunch with the dean of the law school. That was one piece of advice from my 'mentor' (we spoke once and never spoke again) practitioner at the beginning of the year. He said to make sure to take the opportunity to get to know Dean Rasband, and I must say that it was a really nice experience. He is a really nice person, genuinely interested in the students and bringing about positive change at the law school. It was a nice lunch.

I also had the opportunity to participate in several competitions and really had a good time with it. The Trial Advocacy competition is like playing Law and Order for a night. You basically put on a mock trial, calling witnesses and all (which my roommates played very well). I actually had the opportunity to compete as far as the Quarterfinal round. The next competition was the Moot Court competition, which is like arguing before an appellate court. I must say that this was probably my favorite of the two and I actually made it to the semi-finals. While there is on more competition remaining that takes place next week (the Write-on for the BYU Law Review), I can't imagine it being much fun. It is, after all, a week of editing and writing.

I must say that I have loved learning the law. It has been so fascinating and I think the key word is empowering. Understanding  your rights and the legal recourse available to you. Also understanding the boundaries that exist in our society. I'm sure knowing what I do now, will influence my life as a parent. I'm going to see a swimming pool left out on the front lawn and immediately think "Negligence and Liability." My poor, future kids. I fell like I have learned so much over the last eight months and have loved all of it.

Finally I must put in a shout out to my fellow 1Ls. I think I really am blessed to be a part of such a dynamic and great group of people. It has been a wonderful group of people to have class with, and their diversity really has made the experience (and laid aside some of my concerns of coming here, not perfectly, but definitely to a great extent).

All that being said, it really has been a good year and I am happy about this decision to go to law school. I'm not sure what will come of it in the end, but for now I am certainly enjoying it. I must say though, I am still a true Utah State fan and Aggie blood runs through my veins stronger than ever. That much certainly hasn't changed.

Mozart's Requiem

That's Rrekviem. At least in the Germanic Latin version. So I joined this choir last semester. It's known as the Wasatch Chorale. While I have sung in a few choirs in my life (mostly church and institute) and I even took a year of voice lessons, I am not the best singer. My skills lie mostly with matching and, to some degree, blending, which is usually enough for the simpler of choirs. A friend of mine is actually the assistant conductor of the choir and when I moved down here he began to convince me to join. I went to their firs performance last October and then my buddy arranged an audition for me. Wait, Audition! Yeah, he never mentioned that in his months of convincing me to join. One week before what would be my first practice, he decide to spring this on me. And it's an audition that requires singing My Country, 'Tis of Thee and some sight reading. Did I mention that I match? Yeah, that doesn't work so well for sight reading.

For a side note on My Country, 'Tis of Thee. That was the song I had to sing on the first day of my voice lessons. Bless her heart, my voice instructor did her best pounding out that melody in hopes that I would actually get on the right note at some point during the song. Later I would found out that she had never had someone who struggled so much with that song and who was as tone deaf as I was, especially considering I had eight years of playing the clarinet under my belt. Of course, I didn't end the year in that some condition and my instructor was full of praise of my improvements over the year, and thankfully I wasn't as toned deaf. I could now match with the [decent] of them. Still, the thought of singing that song for my tryout brought back those old apprehensions.

What I loved was that the audition wasn't the only surprise. On the day of the tryout my buddy informed me that there were dues in the amount of $100 and that I would have to purchase a tux, of over $100. I know why he held off on these details, there would have been no convincing of me had I known all this. It would have been easy to say no, but he let ,e get far enough down this road so that it was more difficult to turn back. So, I went through with it and for some reason, they let me in. Is there such thing as nepotism, only with friends instead of family?

The first couple of concerts were good, but not unlike the institute choirs I had sung in. However, in February we sang Mozart's Requiem and that was an amazing experience. I didn't realize before hand that it should have been on my bucket list, but it should have been and I can now check it off. Singing the Requiem you feel like you are part of a masterpiece that is much bigger than your small part and the feeling, emotion, spirit and energy in that music is phenomenal. Of course I must say, "Hat's off" to the conductor, Dr. Reed Criddle of UVU, who did a fantastic job. The soloists as well were amazing. It was a transcendental experience. My parents, sister, grandmother, cousins and friends all came. My parents who usually do not care for the style of music actually loved it.

So in the end, while it was a twisting-of-the-arm path getting into the choir, the opportunity to sing Mozart's Requiem really was a monumental life experience. Here is a little clip from the performance.

Turning Over a New Leaf

I came home on Monday and informed my roommate that I was turning over a new leaf. He was quick to inform me that it was too late to turn over a new leaf, they were all already covered in snow.I immediately realized that this must be a metaphor for my life, or some subtle commentary on my age and the fact that I am still single. You know what they say, "Can't teach an old dog new tricks." I'm actually not quite sure if my roommate is clever to have intended the metaphorical or subtle meanings. He often says things and then recognizes how he has unintentionally been clever. (Don't worry, we previously discussed his form of "accidental cleverness" and have already agreed to its existence, so I am not saying anything he doesn't already know.) So, of course this conversation simply confirmed my rejection of New Year's resolutions and I immediately recanted my thought to "turn over a new leaf." Yep. Sorry folks. You are stuck with the same me for another year, because of course you cannot make course corrections mid-year. Why then would we have New Year's? What would the diet, exercise, nicotine patch, and financial planning industries do if we took away their major marketing campaign? (I'm pretty sure they're the people who invented New Year's in the first place.)

So, I plan to just stick with my traditional New Year's plan. In rejecting resolutions, I have decided every year for the last few years to pick up a new vice. This year's chosen vice: Dr. Pepper. But let's be honest, I will probably make it as long on that New Year's vice as the regular person will make on their New Year's resolution. I've never been much of a soda drinker and I'll probably quickly get tired of it. Plus the one possible side benefit would be the caffeine to help me get through the afternoon studying, but for as long as I can remember, caffeine has always had the opposite effect on me of increasing my drowsiness instead of increasing my energy. Though I do have to say, that Dr. Pepper is delicious.

This whole incident was even more humorous in light of the fact that that night at home evening we each had to share our New Year's resolutions. Being that I didn't have one and had decided not to have one, even as recently as two hours prior to home evening, I had to come up with something quick. Of course I chose the first thing that I recently started and plan to do throughout the year, not as a resolution, but as a hobby. I told everyone I was taking up blogging for 2012 and the kid next to me verbally scoffed at my idea. I refrained from slugging him in the shoulder since I don't know him that well, but I doubt that I as tactfully refrained from rolling my eyes. It's a good thing I had chosen not to have a New Year's resolution, I might have felt obligated to try and be more patient with others.

Maybe next year the idea of resolutions will be more appealing, but I have a suspicion that by then the leaves will all be covered in snow again.

(So that you don't all think that I am entirely cynical and jaded, I will share one of my absolutely favorite Mormon Messages videos.)

Maybe it's not the thought that counts . . .

So, I decided to start this blog. I already have two other blogs. One that I planned on updating once a month (which hasn't happened) and another that I have never gotten around to writing the first post. However, I am realizing I have all these thoughts and experiences I want to share and there doesn't seem to be anyone around with whom to share them. This blog you have unfortunately stumbled upon is the generic "Richard's Life Ramblings." By the way, I hate pocket change.

Well, as mentioned, there are experiences that I just need to share and so that brings me to my first post.

Somewhere between two years and eighteen months ago (and for some of the it may have even been longer), I decided to put together some packages to send of to friends serving missions. It was for a wide range of people, including family, pseudo-family, friends, and former EFY participants. I purchased tie tacks, scripture marking pens, CDs, pez dispensers, jerky, gum, and tons of Halloween candy. I addressed all the packages and filled them, but set them aside since I felt obliged to write each one of them a  personal letter. After all, what missionary wants to get a package without a letter?

So there they sat and time passed by as they waited for letters to be written. Since it was now Christmas, the Halloween candy just wouldn't do. So I ate it and replaced it all with Christmas candy, thinking I will put a Christmas card in each package. Surely I could find the time to write in a Christmas card for each one. After all, they're much shorter than standard letters. But before I knew it, it was Valentine's Day and Christmas candy would no longer work.

Let's just say that I went through a lot of holidays, some holidays more than once, and I ate a lot of candy. Eventually the packages were forgotten until I moved. That's when I discovered a box containing all kinds of packages that were all lacking personal letters and were never sent. I had two years worth of packages I had thrown together with object lessons that were all addressed to former EFY participants, about eight missionary packages, some holiday cards to send to my grandmother, and a Valentine's package to send to a friend. All unsent. All forgotten in a box.

Well, needless to say, all the missionaries are home now. Every one of them and all the former EFY participants are probably on missions. So, if any of you are reading this (Matthew, Carli, Sam, Brad, TJ, Cami Jo, Jake, Sarah, Grandma, and any old EFY participants) I did think of you. But then, you'll probably never know that. It really isn't the thought the counts if nothing ever comes of the thought, that is nothing besides the cavities and weight I probably gained from all that candy.