Marvel

“I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe both." Forrest Gump

Coming home this evening after a day of at the law school with my co-students (I am volunteering with a legal aid clinic over the summer), suddenly it hit me. I walked through a patch of green leafy trees and stopped in my tracks--I'm fully a law student.

I must explain: I was living in Fort Lauderdale in 2001, directionless. Not knowing what to do with myself, I needed something/someone to change my pretty-meaningless life. I was interning at a real estate firm and not liking it much. I was single, in debt and not sure who I was or what I should do next. Then, one ordinary morning, I decided I simply must go to school. And not only to school but to law school as well. I still have NO idea where that idea came from or where I got the idea that I had the capabilities to follow this new and very challenging career choice through.

So, I started my first semester of undergrad. And then somehow, I got from that first semester to this walk under the trees of my beautiful campus and home, where I have already completed one year of law. And for the first time ever, I stopped thinking about summer jobs, classroom credit, fall term schedules and just.enjoyed.the.wonder. The wonder that I could make a decison and follow through, the wonder that all the many small decisions and efforts had landed me here. A law student. In a position to grant no-contest divorces, research legal advice for a segment of the community and learn about the way society functions for two more years. It was spellbinding. How? How did I get here? I was listening to the words of the song "Because" from the Beatles on my iPod and each word resonated. "Because the wind is high, it blows my mind."

Sometimes life knocks you over with its beauty and magic.