I noticed that today’s date is 18 May 2014, and I was pretty sure I graduated law school on 18 May 2008: exactly six years ago today. It was not, and is not, a pleasant anniversary because I have spent more time dealing with the consequences of going to law school than I have spent in law school or using the knowledge I acquired in law school.
My mind kept nagging me, “Was is 18 May or 22 May?” Don’t ask a question unless you really want to know the answer. I should have left the question unanswered.
I searched my computer for my “graduation date”, and I stumbled across a letter dated 7 December 2008. It was to Northwestern Memorial Hospital because I owed a debt for a hospital visit in January 2008 when I had a staphylococcus-aureus infection:
I also did not include any Unemployment Compensation documentation because I do not qualify for benefits. I have been a student for the last three years, and not working full time, so Illinois will not give me any benefits. I have enclosed a school transcript that shows my graduation date. Since August 2007, I have applied to over 1,000 employers around the US (and the world). Starting in April 2008, I kept all of my paper rejection letters. As you can see from the enclosed photographs, I have received many letters. In short, I am expending every effort to find a job.
About six weeks after this letter, I got the job in Carroll County. Of course, I want to attach the photographs to this post, so I went looking for the photos and stumbled across more memories that make me sad. “Where are the photos?” Why am I looking for the answer when I am nearly certain I will stumble across a trigger? But I, of course, went looking for the photos. I found Koda’s picture. Crazy dog. It’s impossible to stay angry at a face as cute as that one.
Yeah. I never found the photos I wanted to upload. Then I realized I could Google the commencement date for my graduation. It worked; I graduated on 18 May 2008. But Google decided I needed one more trigger and in the snippets on the search-results page, it reminded me who gave the commencement speech at my graduation. Maybe it will be funny to me, someday.
