Today was my first real day of freedom in four years.  I say that, since last Saturday, I was traveling, and two weeks prior I was traveling, and three weeks prior, well, let’s just say I was still in bar exam Hades.  Time passes when you’re having fun, since the last four years have dragged on and on.  Today, I took absolute advantage of this new-found freedom to do two things I’ve been wanting to do for months, years in one case – I went to the yarn shop and spent as much time as I wanted just looking around.  I had no agenda!  I had no list!  I had no feeling of rush!  I could have stayed all day long until they closed and ran me outside, if I’d wanted to.  It felt great.

I was in another world – the world of the living.  These past four years have been spent wondering how much time I have between study time, reading time, deciding whether to take a shower or just save the time for reading/study time, and eating the fastest-to-prepare and easiest-to-eat-with-one-hand-as-to-free-up-the-other-hand-for-a-highlighter foods I could find.  I never drank coffee before law school.  Now, it’s an every morning occurrence.  I wasn’t on the verge of bifocals before law school.  Now, they are standing on the patio about to knock on the front door to be let into my life.  I did not care or know what the Rule Against Perpetuities meant.  Now, I still don’t care about it but unfortunately know what it is.  (See my take on it, in the photo below, taken during bar study and written by yours truly in the actual bar study book during one of my many bar-break-down sessions.)

In other words, law school changed me.  It made me a better person in the long run, but it certainly was hard getting there.

Today’s outing reminded me that there is a world outside of law school, books, my home office or patio study spot, and exams.  It reminded me that people actually wear real clothes (not pajamas) most of the time, unless of course those people are on People of WalMart.com, and then there are no real rules to what one will wear.  It also reminded me that life goes on, spinning around, regardless of the kind of day you’re having, the struggles you are going through, or the people around you.  Life happens.  I think John Lennon said it best – Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.

Today, my plans include letting life happen.  I am closing this out today to go watch some mindless television (maybe Lifetime!?!), make a baby blanket for a cousin and his wife (it’s a girl!), and chill out.  With no agenda, no real plans, I can enjoy the present instead of the future.