Semester Re-cap

I don't currently have the internet at my apartment; money is tight and it seemed like a good way to save costs. In actuality, it just makes me depressed when I get home because I feel cut off from the world :) But I have a few minutes before my next class starts, and I thought I'd try and give you some updates.

It's been a crazy semester. Over Spring Break I elected not to go home and instead drove to Champaign, Illinois, for the Big Ten Wrestling Championships. What a trip! Matt won first, and Penn State walked away with the team title.

It was a great weekend spent with my parents, aunt and uncle, and Matt and Lauren.

I got home from Illinois and immediately started a new job at a local civil litigation firm. I can't say enough good things about that place. I feel wanted, appreciated, and (perhaps most importantly) challenged. I've started working every morning before my first class. That's only ten hours a week, but I sure feel the addition to my already-full schedule. Nevertheless, I'm grateful for the new path my career has taken.

After Spring Break, Law School Jen and I got to work on the 2L trial competition. Preparation for this overlapped with grading the 1L Law Review submissions. Again, things were crazy, but they were also great. Our second round was on a Wednesday night--March 20. That happened to be the night my parents flew into Omaha (flights to Des Moines were a bit pricey). I was go grateful they were able to attend our round and watch me flounder through figuring out this whole trial thing. Dad gave me a lot of good feedback to apply to future rounds.

The next day began the experience of a lifetime: attending NCAA Wrestling Nationals. I drove to Des Moines early in the morning and picked up Lauren from the airport. After three days of quality wrestling, I was fortunate enough to see Matt compete in the 174 lb championship match and to see Penn State win its third straight national title.

Matt was also honored with the Elite 89 award. I've been proud of Matt for a lot of things he's accomplished, but this might have topped the list. I know my siblings were sad to miss the tournament, and I feel very lucky that NCAAs were so close. (Des Moines is only about two hours from me.)

I got back from Nationals and jumped right back into the trial competition. Round-by-round, we advanced, and I found myself enjoying what I was doing quite a bit.

A second break from the competition came in the form of Easter Break. I drove home for Abby's baptism. It was a short but fun-filled weekend. We topped things off with Easter dinner and an Easter egg hunt for the nieces and nephews.

Last Tuesday Law School Jen and I competed in the final round of the trial competition and came in second. It was a tough loss, but I'm grateful we made it as far as we did.

Just two days later, we left for Kansas City for the UMKC Show Me Challenge, a national voir dire competition. We hadn't prepared for the competition as much as we would have liked (at all, really), but we were told by our coach to scope things out and get a feel for the tournament so we could decide if we should spend some time on it and go back next year. We were pleasantly surprised when we advanced to the semi-final round. We lost to Texas Tech by a 9-6 decision, so we left relatively pleased with our performance.

So, now I'm back in Omaha with no traveling plans in the near future. Finals start in a week and a half, and I can't believe how the semester has flown by.

I hope you all are doing well! Life is crazy, but as always, life is good.