11/6/07

Old and New and the Bridge Between


As I was brushing my teeth this morning, my mind began to wander. I'm no longer squarely in my mid-twenties, but inching toward thirty. In my mind, college is a breath I just exhaled - but in reality, it's several years in the past. Now I'm at the threshold of a new journey: law school. As I meet the people around me - teachers, peers, mentors - an impression of my new environment begins to form in my mind like a cloud slowly gathering its condensation into a mass. A picture comes together, along with a story, and I start to sketch myself into it. I do this with all the enthusiasm, excitement, thrill, and fear that accompanies any new (ad)venture, and with all the friendship, love, and support that has sustained me and carried me up to this point.

Enough rumination: I began to think about my friends. Specifically, the friends I met in college, my best friends, the ones who shine in my mind as examples of the kinds of people that make this world a wonderful, joyous place to be. And I thought about what thrilling variety they embody: one's a lawyer, one works for Yahoo, one works in community development, one is studying German history and the Holocaust, another is in law school, one is doing microeconomic development projects in Bangladesh, one is a poet, one is in art school, one is a sculptor, another in Turkey, one works at Morgan Stanley, one is in business school, one a journalist in London...all doing things that excite them.

As I move forward to take my place in the world, I feel so lucky to have these people as friends, peers, mentors, confidantes and partners in adventure. They breathe light, laughter, and love into the world every day - an image that warms me every time it's conjured in my mind, even when they are far away.

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