text: Megan's World » 2009 » August
  "Oh no, I gotta go…back to school!"
  Filed under: Uncategorized — megs @ 10:18 pm
  Summer has ended, and I didn't post once. Why? I was up to my eyeballs in law.
  I spent my summer working for WSU's legal clinic. "What is a legal clinic," as at least one of you has asked? A legal clinic provides free legal services, generally for people in the surrounding area who cannot afford to pay triple-digit per hour attorney fees for simple legal problems. Our school runs a family law clinic, because the schedule moves really fast, and provides multiple opportunities for students to appear in court and do legal things. I had four "appearances," though I only talked to a judge twice. I had five clients for the summer, working on issues like dissolution of marriage, guardianship (determining legal and physical custody of a child), and conservatorship (basically, a guardianship for adults who cannot take care of themselves). I learned a lot, though several of my clients cemented my desire to never practice family law.
  And now, my last year of school begins. This is going to be my busiest year academically, and I need to do everything right to graduate on time. My favorite class so far was the one I thought I would hate the most – State and Local Government. I was ill disposed toward the class because I thought I would have to write a law-review style paper in order to satisfy my writing requirement. Turns out, not so. The subject is all about extremely local law – like water districts, and planning commissions, and such. It is the legal equivalent of a city planning course. It appeals to the political scientist in me, and makes me smile at it's mid-level bureaucratic antics.
  As you may have noticed, if you've been tracking my running on my Nike widget, I haven't been running near as much as I hoped. I build up a good routine for a few weeks, and then my leg will start to hurt. Well, I went and had my gait evaluated at a running store today (which means I ran on a treadmill with a camera pointed at my legs, so the nice lady could watch which way my ankles flopped when I took a stride) and got some new shoes and insoles. Tomorrow, to the park!