it's somebody's birthday...

on september 17, 1985, God decided jamie kim could enter this world.

on january 14, 1986, God decided i could come into this world.

in septemberish 2004, jamie kim and i were assigned to a bible study that met on this campus of 50,000. it is up for debate as to whether our purpose was to become friends or torment our beloved b.s. leader meg ryan, but i like to think we did both...

by septemberish 2007, there was no debate as to why we were assigned to the same bible study as wee little freshmen. God had crossed our paths, bringing this AZN from katy into my life, and making her a 'cornerstone' in my community.

by mayish 2008, we had celebrated four years of living life together...we had gone through ups and downs, "out-of-body experiences," and had even survived traveling together.

on september 17, 2008, our paths no longer joined in the same city. separated by 1669.03 miles, we can no longer sit on our senior couch and drop osteen jokes, or eat sno-beach together, or watch jon and kate plus 8. we can't drive around and shuffle the ipod to our emo music [relient k] or dcb, or go out to lunch after church, or celebrate 23rd birthdays together.

so today, september 17, 2008, my dear friend whom i dearly miss gets to be front and center on my blog. happy birthday to you, mischevious jamie kim, my sour-patch eating, excessive coffee drinking, joel osteen 'loving' friend. because of you, i know it's okay to buy 'your best life now,' or have 'out-of-body experiences,' or to bring things back to me. because of you, i am daily challenged by our dear Lord who brought our paths together, challenged by the way you devote yourself to prayer and to his ministry. because of you, i am blessed with deep friendship and the experience of knowing what it's like to live in community. because of you, i am better than i was four years ago.

i so wish we could have dinner tonight to celebrate your day together, but even more so, i wish you were here to live life with me.

top 10 things i've learned in law school...thus far.

1. You can pretty much sue anybody for anything at anytime. As my torts professor told us, when approached with a possible tort, you must think about anybody connected to the defendant who you might be able to hold liable---mom, dad, boss, dog. Once you've done that, sue those people, too, just in case.
2. Insanity is pretty much a ‘get out of jail free card.’ Plead insanity and you have a good chance of getting off. I mean, if a guy can be acquitted for killing three people because he "blacked out" and doesn’t remember doing it, then the insanity defense has to be pretty legit. Moral? No. Legal? Yes.
3. There are always those people who think they’re smarter than everyone else. We like to call them ‘gunners’. They're also the people who raise their hands to answer questions the professor has specifically directed at someone else, or try to show that the professor [who is probably a legal genius in their own right] is wrong. So far, three have been identified in my section. All I can say is that it must be hard being the smartest person at the 16th best law school in the country.
4. People don’t like it when you talk in the law library. They're quick to give a hostile ‘shhh’ to anyone who speaks above a whisper. As Ty likes to say, you’ve got to be as quiet as a mouse.
5. The law is not completely devoid of morality. Only most of it is. [See above discussion on torts and insanity.]
6. Law school professors don’t like to answer questions. Any question you ask will be answered with another question. As I have found, it is quite frustrating for those of us who just want the answer and not the twenty minute discussion that comes with it.
7. I am officially a nerd. When you begin to justify not doing the reading because you think a possible defense in court would be that a ‘reasonable person’ would not have done the reading either, you know you’ve sold out. [For those of you who haven’t had the distinct pleasure to scour thousands of cases dating back to the 1600s, the reasonable person standard dictates what should be acceptable behavior in the eyes of the law].
8. Pretty much any professor you run across is some sort of legal genius in some field. For example, I was doing my Con Law reading the other day when none other but my Con Law professor himself was quoted. Crazy. [And for the record, Con Law has nothing to do with being a felon. Or, at least a 'criminal' felon. You might be a Constitutional felon, but I suppose that's a different subject for another day.]
9. Law school is pretty much like being a high school freshman again…you don’t know anybody, the same kids are in all of your classes, people congregate around the lockers, and everyone wants to be the best.
10. Law school is hard. These people weren’t joking when they said we’ve entered the house of pain.

Time for an Update...

Law school is hard. and tiring. and more work than I have ever done in my entire school career. and surprisingly quite similar to the movie Legally Blonde.

But God is so good. and faithful. and full of strength and mercy. and He gives me enough to get through each day. He gives me time to get it all done [even on nights like tonight when I forget that I have Con Law homework, despite the existence of a comprehensive to-do list]. He gives me time to enjoy things I love, like ministry and watching One Tree Hill and having dinner with friends new and old. He gives me wonderful people who speak truth into my life and without whom I would not have survived the last two weeks.

and for however much legal knowledge I have acquired in the last two weeks, I have learned that despite my weaknesses, tiredness, doubts, and complaints, He will draw near to those who seek Him. He is Emmanuel, my God who is with me, and that is more than I will need for today.