It’s hard to believe that 1L is finally over. I have awaited this time since what seems like…forever.   I looked forward to the summer as this bright beacon of hope.  I kept telling myself, just hold out & wait… things will only go up from here.  And now that I’m finally here, I can’t help but feel strangely frightened and somewhat lost.

Now it’s time to face the things I’ve put on hold… whether its the doubts/anxieties I have about choosing this career in the first place or the broken relationships I’ve yet to mend or the emotional residue of my reckless actions – all the real-life concerns are rushing back to me now that the miserable, but sheltered & hermetic bubble of 1L year has burst.

The place that has kept me safe, the people that have kept me safe – it’s all gone.  But if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s losing things.

One Art

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.