June 9, 2012
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Don’t be alarmed…
…but I’ve done something awkward.
GREAT AUKward!Because of voir dire/jury selection, we didn’t get to go to the happy hour even that some local attorneys had scheduled. I felt bad. I’ve never stood anyone up before. But that wasn’t the awkward part.
The awkward part was calling some random attorney I didn’t know and leaving a message telling him that I wouldn’t be able to make the happy hour. : ( Frankly, I’m not even sure that it was the right attorney. All the information I had about drinks, contacts, etc. was second hand…it was unfortunate. I was freaking out because I needed to be two places at once: at the bar AND at jury selection.
The cool part is that, of all three interns, I was the only one ballsy enough to actually do something proactive and inform the event-planning attorneys that we would be late/absent. Ballsy is not the role I usually play. Maybe they finally dropped. That would be cool.
After voir dire, the other interns and I trekked across the West End to the pub just to see if things were still hiz-happening. Alas, the attorneys were gone–reasonably so because it had been more than an hour and a half since the party was supposed to go down. It was not really going to be a party…not, at least, until I got behind a couple mojitos.
I’ve discovered that life is a lot easier if I just embrace the awkward. I’ve tried to be cool, but I just can’t pull it off. So, I’m awkward, but I get stuff done. I guess it’s not the best combination of attributes, but it’s not a completely terrible one either.
Comments (7)
Don’t worry, I’m always alarmed.
I relate completely. I’ve come to view my awkwardness as an endearing quality. Plus, it would be super weird if you were 100% confident at a new internship.
Sorry I’ve been MIA, btw. How are you liking the internship? What kind of work are you doing?
@Rob_of_the_Sky - I got this really funny visual of a bunch of alarms strapped to your person and going off at random intervals. It’s an alternative reading of “I’m alarmed.”
@NCTHope - I’m interning with a probate court judge. I have mixed feelings about the internship; I love seeing everything that’s going on, but I’m primarily doing random research, which I’m not so great at. AND I’m researching unsettled questions of pure law with zero case law on point…so there’s very little concrete guidance. For example, my current topic is “Do the 2005 changes to the Texas Property Code that create equity protection for purchases descend or transfer to heirs/devisees and subvendees if the original vendee dies?” So, it’s interesting even if challenging. All in all, the line on resume and the accompanying letter of recommendation will be worth it. For sure.
I was not aware that jury selection was done in the evenings. I always got called in the mornings, and had to be there by 9 a.m.
Too bad that you missed the happy hour.
@TutelageOfTheMundane - Yes, that does describe me. I never get any sleep.
@ZSA_MD - Jury selection doesn’t typically happen in the evening; we just had an unusually long day. The jury panel arrived at 9:00 but we didn’t get done until about 6:00 in the evening–that was the problem. The drink event was pushed back to about 5:00…but we still weren’t done in time. After a day that long, I probably could have used a drink–I’m the sure the jurors could have too; they didn’t find it as education an experience as I did.
@TutelageOfTheMundane - After I posted the comment, I thought about it, and told myself that perhaps the reason for that was the jury selection took all day long. I live in a small town, and the jury selection is usually only a couple of hours in the morning, and the case usually starts in the early afternoon.