2009 – a year in review

What a year 2009 has been!!! Let’s see if I can capture all that has happened.

I stopped dancing professionally. I started a freelance paralegal business. I started blogging. I joined Twitter. I took classes at a local university in San Diego.I found a regular client through a cold call. I started taking ballet classes again. I took a summer law school class at a local law school. I stopped dancing. I started moonlighting for a social media company. I started dancing again. I took the LSAT. I was the guest blogger/tweeter for the NALS conference in Irvine, CA where I had a blast. I went to Blog World Expo which was absolutely amazing (and I am for sure attending in 2010!!!) Meanwhile, through out all of this, I had met someone who originally was just a friend who would discuss cases with me and was helpful during my summer law class. He is now my boyfriend. I moved to Northern Virginia and I have experienced my first white Christmas on the East Coast. I have a new job in Washington DC and my company still exists in San Diego. I joined NALS and I am on their @Law committee (which is their publication).

Wow! 2009 was a year of growth, learning, figuring out life and what I want, and having the guts to move across country and try new things. All in all, it was a great year. I look forward to 2010 and the new things to come. I am confident that 2010 will be an even better year.

I am grateful for every experience. I am also really glad that I have joined Twitter. I have found clients on there, I have made professional connections, and most of all I have made friends. There are many people, such as Susan and Elisa, whom I am so glad are in my life and make me proud to call them friends.

How has your year been? Leave a link below so I can read about your year in review.

The Start of Something New

Tomorrow I get on a plane to Washington, DC….and I don’t have a return flight. I am moving to DC and moving in with my boyfriend. This is a huge step for me.  Everything that I have done in my life, until now, was aimed at pleasing my parents. I put their love and their praise above everything else. As you can imagine, this didn’t make me too happy. I was doing things, not because I wanted to do them, but because it was what was asked of me…what was expected of me.

In December of 2006 I moved back home from Orange County, CA.  I was broken physically, mentally, and emotionally.  I needed to get back on my feet and felt that the best way to do that was to remove myself from my current location.  My parents generously opened their doors to me and gave me the love and comfort that only parents can give.  I appreciate all that they did for me.

However, moving back home as an adult has its challenges. The old roles are quickly assumed by myself and my parents. The love and caring has become overshadowed by tension and I continue to struggle to figure out who I am and what I want for my life. Hence the move to DC.  I have lived my entire life in Southern California. I think it is time for me to stretch my wings and see what life is like somewhere else. Maybe this will work, and maybe it won’t, but I won’t know unless I try. I have an amazing guy who is willing to walk beside me and lend moral support as I need it. What more can you ask for in life?

This will be an adventure for sure, but one that I feel that I am strong enough to handle…finally.

Blog World 2009 Rocks My Socks!

I wrote this post, for the most part, right after BWE ended. Due to some personal complications it is not getting posted until now (has it really only been one week since BWE? Seems longer!)

This was my first year attending Blog World Expo and all I can say is: WOW! It was amazing! First off, I wasn’t completely prepared for the sheer volume of people and the size of the convention center. Second, I wasn’t prepared for walking past people in the hallways who are the greats of the social media world. I think I actually tripped as I

Grace Boyle and I

walked past Chris Brogan. Also, I talked to people in real life that I never imagined I would such as Jun Loayza, Ben Parr, and Problogger. I got my picture take with Anthony Edwards (he was my favorite on ER. I stopped watching after they killed off Dr. Greene) How I kept from passing out with excitement is beyond me.

There were so many great educational sessions offered. Many of them I wanted to attend but couldn’t either because my pass didn’t allow me to (Note to self: start saving up for next year’s full access pass now) or because they were scheduled at the same time (Does anyone know if the sessions were recorded?). Pretty much, if you could think of it, there was a session on it. There was a huge exhibit hall with vendors, which is where I spent a lot of time. I got to hang out at the lijit booth with the amazing blogger Grace Boyle.

Honestly, my favorite part of Blog World was hanging out at the Blog World Radio booth.  I got to sit there and tweet my heart out about the radio shows that were being done live from the middle of the exhibit floor. There were so many great people as guest on the radio show…from Scott Stratten to DebNg to Adam Carolla (yes folks, that’s right…I sat at the table next to the table that Adam Carolla was sitting at…and didn’t take a picture…talk about being serious about your tweeting!) I now think that tweetchat is the greatest invention since sliced bread (read more about tweetchat here), tweeting for a living would be the best thing ever, and that I would love to do this again at other conferences (hint, hint people).

A good time was had by all….I think.

Angie Swartz, myself, Alan Underkofler

End of the month update

September will be winding up here in a day or so, which means I need to take stock of my September Goals.

1. Ace the LSAT on the 26th (oh ok, I’ll settle for a good score, or even a decent score) ** well, I took the test. I have to wait until Oct. 19th for an email with my score.  The will probably be the hardest email to read so far in my life.**

2.  Have at least two more attorney’s sign up as clients for my business   **Almost there. I had one sign up, unsolicited, off  Twitter. That was pretty darn cool actually. He’s been following me and had need of some extra help…and the rest is history So, I’ll only half cross that one off**

3.  finally sort out my blogs and what posts go where  ** darn it. still working on my two blogs and figuring it all out**

4.   build up readership on my personal blog  **well, not really sure about this one as I don’t really have a method for gaging. Maybe I should have made that a goal as well. I have 2 new subscribers so i guess from zero to 2 is an increase. I guess this will be going on October’s Goals list**

5.  Make enough money to pay all of my bills and afford a new pair of pointe shoes **happy to say this was accomplished and the they are sewn (badly…even after all of these years I hate sewing them) and ready for me to plunge back into class now that pesky LSAT is out of the way**

Let’s see….two and half goals crossed off. Hmmm…not an all time record for goals, but considering LSAT was a big time sucker this month I think I did alright.

Now (drum roll) the October goals:

1. Have two more attorneys sign up as clients (still building a business here)
2. start taking ballet class on a regular basis again
3. Not be shy at the NALS09 conference for which I am the guest tweeter/blogger
4. figure out what the heck is my plan for law school
5. have a blast at BlogWorld09 (you have no idea how excited I am to attend…I think i shall explode!)
6. start studying for the Certified Legal Assistant exam I take in December
7. sleep (why not make that a goal??)

Turning away at the finish line

I’m 11 days out from taking the LSAT and I am…numb, frustrated, don’t care anymore. This is so unlike me. I’m the type A, competitive one of the family.  The one who pushes on against all odds. The stubborn one who hates the word no and takes joy in proving you wrong complete with a triumphant “Ha!” and a happy dance after I trounce you. Yet, here I am pouring my heart out to my blog readers hoping that somehow doing so will make it all better.

All I feel right now is that I want to be done. I don’t want to take this test, I don’t want to go to law school, i don’t want to do any of it. I just want to turn my back on it and walk away. Go somewhere far away and do something anything, be anywhere but here. But who turns away when the finish line is in sight? It is right there in front of me and I just want to stop running, leave the race.

How do you keep pushing on when it is the last thing you want to do?

Where were you on 9/11?

My parents can tell me exactly where they were and what they were doing the day JFK was shot. I will always remember where I was on 9/11. I had spent the summer in New York City studying ballet at the Joffrey Ballet School in their beautiful studios on the corner of 11th and 6th Avenue (aka Avenue of the Americas). That was my third summer there. I knew the city well enough to feel comfortable running around by myself. I had come to love that city for the cultural opportunities, the Arts that it was home to, and craziness of the city! I had been to the top of the Twin Towers and seen the view from up there. My parents, who had come out to see me perform, and I boarded a plane back to California exactly one month before 9/11.  It had never crossed my mind to be concerned about my safety during the flight.

My summer continued on as normal, attending second summer session at my university, taking ballet class, and hanging out. Then one morning, one fateful morning, I was asleep at the home of my boyfriend at the time, and my cell phone rings. It was my mother. Deciding that it was too early to have a conversation with her, i let it go to voicemail. She called back again, and then a third time. It was then that I knew something must be wrong. I listened to her voicemail telling me that a plane had been hijacked and flown into one of the Twin Towers. I couldn’t believe it. I thought she had flipped her lid. I called her back and first thing she said was to turn on the tv. I did….and never moved. All day I watched the news, watching the planes fly into the towers over, and over, and over again.

As I watched people helping others from the wreckage, I noticed everyone was covered in dust. Everyone looked the same and everyone felt the same pain. For awhile, the nation was drawn together to help in a time of great need. The lines were erased. Differences set aside. We came together as a nation.

I will never forget where I was, how I felt or what I saw.

Where were you?

Objects in Mirror are Closer Than They Appear

So, I was having a Skype chat tonight and it came up how impressed I am with everyone on twitter who are doing great things in the social media world.  These are bloggers, younger than me, who are taking the world by storm. They are becoming “household names.” People ask them for advice on how to do their blogs. They are all over twitter. People subscribe to their RSS feeds. Conversations are their blogs are consistent.

I long to be one of them. I feel like I am on the fringes. That odd person hanging on the edge of the circle…longing to be a part of the crowd but to shy to say anything. I told my friend that I had never imagined that I would ever be chatting with her on Skype (or being calling her a friend, for that matter). That I never thought I would ever come up on her radar. She was surprised by this news. She feels that I have more influence than I think.

Why is it so easy for us to not believe the reflection we see in the mirror? Others have faith in me. Why don’t I?

September Goals

I was scrolling through my Google Reader entries, coffee mug in hand, when I came across an interesting post on Brazen Careerist. It is by Rebecca Thorman called “September Monthly Goal Meet-up” The idea is to cross of the goals from the pervious month and list out the goals for the current month. Then, you link to it on her blog and check out other people’s lists as a way to meeting new people and checking out new blogs. I think it is a preety neat idea.  Much better than my usual method writing my goals down on a piece of paper and then losing the paper. So, without further ado, here are my goals for September (yes, yes…I know the month has already started…I’m a little behind, cut me some slack)

1. Ace the LSAT on the 26th (oh ok, I’ll settle for a good score, or even a decent score)
2. Have at least two more attorney’s sign up as clients for my business
3. finally sort out my blogs and what posts go where
4. build up readership on my personal blog
5. Make enough money to pay all of my bills and afford a new pair of pointe shoes

I think those are enough goals for now. Don’t want to get ahead of myself on my goals.

What are your goals for September??

New blog site

All of you who have been faithfully following Law School Bound, we have moved!! The blog is now located at my website: www.paralegalassociates.org so y’all need to shuffle on over there!!

**Update 9/14/09** After much debating, thought, consideration, and any other synonyms you can come up with to add to this list, I have made some decisions regarding my blog. This one here, which used to be “Law School Bound”, is no “Evolutionary Life” is my personal blog and can include…..well, anything. My professional blog “Paralegal Associates” is located on my business’ website and will have posts that relate to law, paralegals and a few posts regarding business and social media. Hope you enjoy them both.

Update #1

I originally started my blog with the idea that it would chronical my journey to law school as I grappled with the ins, outs, ups and downs of figuring out the law school application process.  However, I don’t feel like I have been focusing on that of late.  So, I’ll take a moment here and publicly look at where I am so far.

It is the middle of June, actually passed the middle by one day.  My freelance paralegal business is starting to take off, at the expense of studying for the LSAT.  When I formed the business back in January, I had no clue what I was doing…and I still don’t. Or, at least I don’t think I have a clue what I am doing (feel free to correct me if I am wrong). However, sink or swim is the best way for me to learn and I think I have reached doggy paddle.  I have managed to get some clients, made my own website, started my own blog, and became addicted to Twitter (I am currently in a program to wean myself off of Twitter….it’s not working). I have made some great connections on there, both professional ones and people I would proudly call friends even though I have yet to meet them in person.

I made it through my legal history class at UCSD, which you heard a lot about if you follow me on twitter. Next Monday (June 22) I start a 6 week summer intro to law class (American Legal and Constitutional History: Crimes, Civil Wrongs, and the Constitution) at California Western School of Law.  They have a partnership with UCSD and let a few (25) UCSD students take the class and I am lucky enough to be one of them.  It will be my first real law school class.  I am both nervous and excited.  I haven’t been this excited about going to school since I started 6th grade and wanted to wear a pleated skirt and navy blue blazer.  My mother convinced me that jeans and a sweatshirt was a more practical public school outfit (Mom, I think I missed my calling as a private school girl). But, I digress ever so slightly. This class is ridiculously important.  I have to do well since I will have an actual law school class on my transcript.  That transcript may come from UCSD, but it is still a law school class and will be a major factor in my applications to law school.  (Again, correct me if I am wrong).

Working, school, blogging, tweeting, google reader-ing, etc does not leave much time for a social life or really much of a life at all.  Honestly though, I wouldn’t change things for the world.  I was told once (I can’t remember by whom or I would give credit) that if you find something that you love, then work doesn’t seem like work. It is true.  I may run around crazy and stressed, but at the end of the day, for the most part, I love where I am in terms of career, life direction and what I am doing.  It is all up hill from here.