A Fulfilling Day

Hello All,

I wanted to write about my volunteer job. Yesterday I went to volunteer at the legal agency and yesterday was a memorable day.

For starters we have new interns. A couple of months ago it was law students from Stanford. Now I'm seeing Santa Clara Law students for the summer. I got to talk to them while we went to Whole Foods for lunch (it's our thing). I have been there for a while and have gotten to see faces change as semesters and quarters in school pass by. I get to pick their brains about law school and the LSATS and taking the Bar.

While I was talking to them I discovered that one of the girls was born in Barcelona and is Catalan. She was raised here most her life and therefore didn't have an accent. We were talking about life in Barcelona and Catalans. I was so happy. We talked about the party life and the problem with cigarette smoke over there. Then I talked to a guy that traveled all across Europe and got into serious debt over it.

The funny thing is that they (the new interns) got actual formal training. I got absolutely no training when I started six months ago. I was just thrown into everything and had to figure everything out. But I am glad that happened. Because it helped make me proactive, and it forced me to constantly ask for things to do, and it forced me to break out of my shell and constantly ask questions. I remember the first week I was there. I managed to file a visa and put together all the necessary documents without my hand being held. Hell yeah it was hard and I felt like an ass but in the end I got my work done. I also ended up doing translation work and doing client intakes. Those were my favorites. I always liked the initial client interaction.

So I have landed a new internship for the summer and it is finally time to say goodbye to the legal agency. Next week will be my last day. It has been six months with them, and I learned a lot. I went there purely to get out and volunteer and give back to the community. I also wanted to educate myself on immigration issues in our community. In the process I learned a ton. Now it's time to move on.

I spoke to the program director and we had a really nice chat. She was very happy for me and told me that I proved to be invaluable to the organization. She told me to keep in contact with her, because they are thinking about creating a paying position for me.

She then looked at me and said "OMG ! You have blue eyes !I never realized the whole time that you had such colored eyes !" She then asked me if this was my real hair color and I said yes. She then told me " Wow, you'dbe like a dream for someone !". LOL.

I don't have days like that often. I was glad it happened yesterday.