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The Vital First Steps to Take to Find Your Mentor
We’ve discussed before how awkward networking can be when you’re new to the profession. We’re told so often to “network!” during school, but it can be a foreign concept. Actually, to me it always felt icky that we’re going to these events to “make contacts,” which is often code for “what can this person do for me?” See? Gross. Instead, when I flipped this concept to make networking feel more reasonable for me, I found that I really enjoyed it. It can still be a little nerve-wracking to go to an event, unsure if I’ll know anyone, but it’s very rare when I go to something and feel like the…
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Uprooting The Seeds of Domestic Violence
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and it’s an important topic for me because I work daily with survivors of domestic violence. That’s the general reason why this matters to me, but another big reason why advocating for survivors of DV matters to me is because I also experienced & observed inter-family violence in the home as a child by my former step-father. One thing about me is that when I want to understand why something is happening, I like over-do it and research it to death. These life circumstances were no different, and by the time I was in middle school, I would seek out books about DV in…
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Radical Women: This Bridge Called My Back
I have wanted to review This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color forever and figured this review would be a great way to end Latinx History Month with a bang! For those that may not know, TBCMB is a collection of essays, letters, and poems of various women of color and it is edited Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua. Composed in the early 80s, the writers are considered Third World Feminists. They are women of color, feminists, fighting against the oppression of poverty, racism, sexism, and xenophobia. It’s a really incredible collection of voices that resonated with me even though the pieces were written before I…
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What Lin Manuel Miranda Can Teach Us About Law School
First, and foremost, I have been on the Lin Manuel bandwagon since 2010. It’s on record, people. So I saw his tweet today and was like aha! his work ethic is a great example of how to succeed in your educational pursuits. He tweeted: You will have to say no to things to say yes to your work. I mean, I know he’s an artist, but he was basically describing the path to a J.D. It’s not a newsflash to current law students or attorneys that getting to (and through) law school requires sacrificing many things in order to succeed. But in the midst of that sacrifice it…
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Latinas at Work: Working Hard for Half the Recognition
There was a recent a study conducted on Latinas in the corporate world. The study found that Latinas are more likely to feel like they have to work harder than colleagues to be taken seriously. There is a fear of being seen as “too Latina” and a great effort to downplay our otherness at work. When I read this I was like, aha! I very much attempted to assimilate my looks into a more mainstream “look” when I was in law school. I still don’t wear hoop earrings for fear of how they’re perceived. L We’ve hit on these topics before, but it’s a recent student that shows how Latinas,…
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Battling Isolation and Loneliness as a New College Student
Can I tell you how hyped I was to start college? I was so excited! I had the full “traditional” American experience at a four-year university and absolutely loved it. Yet, I would see some students around me who hated it and I just didn’t get it. What’s not to love? There’s so much freedom and new experiences and friends and parties and learning etc etc. I didn’t get how people could feel lonely or dislike college—and then I went to law school and was like oh. I get it. The loneliness and feelings of detachment that many students of color experience when they start college smacked me in the…
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Sidebar: Deep in the Heart of Texas
Summer’s over, it’s chilly, I can get regular lattes again and not worry about sweating to death on my commute. Yay. I love fall. But I am still sad to see summer go only because I am so not ready for holiday chatter. Anyway, it’s time for a Sidebar post, where I share some more personal events going on in my life and work! I hope you share some of your going-ons as well! I’d love to get to know you all better! My favorite things for September included finally hosting a dinner party at our new home. We moved in June and I have been a mega-brat about it.…
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Beyond Identity: The Economic Importance of Knowing Spanish
Do you speak Spanish? I know there’s such an (unfair) assumption about our community’s language abilities and assume we should all have this skill. I happen to be fluent—actually Spanish is my first language, but I’ve never understood the backlash and weird arrogance some people display when they hear that other Latinas don’t know Spanish. Like stahp. Why do we add these barriers on top of each other? In reality, I’m actually lucky to still know Spanish and have become stronger in my language skills only because of my job. However, there was a time that I forgot Spanish because I lived in a small town with no other Latinxs…
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What To Do Your 1L Summer
For many 1Ls, you’re about a month away before you’re able to really start applying for summer jobs. I remember during my first 1L semester not really understanding the importance of looking for work that was still months away. I mean, how could I know the importance when I was still just a few months into law school and had no idea how the process really worked? I knew that people starting applying in the fall, but that seemed so silly to me—surely this could wait until spring, right? I totally didn’t know the ins and outs of summer jobs and how the “good” positions are offered before the year…
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De-Stressing & Self-Care in the times of Social Media
I consider myself super lucky in that when I started working as a full-time attorney there was a more open philosophy re: vicarious trauma and attorneys. While there’s still an old-school though that nothing we do should impact us emotionally, the truth is that many of us that work in various areas of the law are exposed to ugly human behavior-there’s no question that can impact our own mental health. That’s reality. Then we add the atrocious, urgent, and infuriating state of our country in regards to how people of color are treated and it results in feelings of sadness, anger, anxiety, etc. It’s not a great headspace to be…