Mile-High Musings

Sitting here in a nondescript Starbucks in the middle of the 16th Street Mall in Denver, I can't help but wonder how I got here.  I mean, obviously I know how I got here, but it all happened so fast (and it's about to end just as abruptly) that when I think about it, I feel like there's an element of importance to the event transcending a mere trip to look for an internship.

See, Marisa and I want to live here after I graduate.  And, given how the law profession works, that means I have to apply for jobs out here for next summer, even though we'll be in Boston until mid-2010.  So I started the tedious process of job-hunting in the Rockies, with only a cloudy clue as to how to proceed.  After all, I'm not too familiar (or comfortable) with situations or processes that entail that impersonal kind of formalism.  We've all been in those situations, the ones where there are preapproved topics of conversation, you don't let them get to know you too personally, after all.  (I never understood that).  I'm talking office-type job interviews, applications for various things, all that.  But I digress.

Anyway, thanks to some very friendly people who know people who know still other people, I was able to finagle an interview with the Colorado Attorney General's Criminal Justice Division.  They asked me to come out to interview face-to-face, but, of course, government agencies don't pay travel expenses like private law firms do.  So I put a dent in my student loans/Christmas shopping funds and came out.  I had a great interview.  The people that I spoke with were very personable, very genuine, and I didn't feel like I was in some rigid conversation where innocuous remarks or anecdotes were liable to be taken to define my personality for the interviewer.  I felt very comfortable and I sincerely hope they give me the job.  Later, as I was talking to one of the attorneys privately, she told me that interns in their office usually have great success getting jobs in the Denver area.  That really got me excited.

So now I'm sitting in this nondescript Starbucks on 16th Street Mall in Denver, sipping hot chocolate (with salted carmel--highly recommended) before heading back to the airport to catch the red eye home in time to embark on a 2-day Family Law binge before my final starts.  And I feel like, in the middle of the frenzy of pre-wedding events and finals bearing down hard and quick, I've somehow taken the first step to securing a future, not only for myself, but for my fiancee.  It's one of those few times where part of me actually feels like I can make something of myself in this world, that I can provide and thrive in society and that my family can do the same.  

It feels good.