25 Years Old

"Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in." - Amy Lowell

Well today I turned 25. I can't believe it, but I can't get around it, I'm an adult. This is somewhat of a milestone, but the main benefit I think is your insurance rates going down. The night before my bday I was up watching a movie and it honestly didn't hit me it was my birthday until 4:30am. Every year I have been waiting for it and always knew at 12:01 that I was now a year older than a minute before. This year there was no big anticipation. I just slept in most of the day and bummed around the house trying to break in this new 25 year old feel. At one point I kind of thought it might go beyond being low key to just being boring, but then my sisters Ana and Eliza came over and we all went out to Bennigans for a kids night out. Despite my inablity to add and lie well, my 20 year old brother Abram was able to drink with us.

We drank, ate appitizers and talked and laughed for hours. It is kind of a tradition to have our kids night out once a year and this one I am glad we had on my bday. I'm so happy I love my family and my brother and sisters, because I am really luckly and I never really saw that growing up. I mean we all have our own personality quirks, but I truly enjoy spending time with them. I didn't get any presents on my bday, didn't unwrap one gift, something that actually just hit me right now, but that night was gift enough.

My grades are finally in. I did much better than I expected, but of course not as good as I hoped to when I first started law school and didn't know how hard it was. I got a B+ in Property. That class is hard and the professor goes over less material, but really indepth, so you really have to know your stuff well. I love that cause I'd rather know more about something than just a lot of things. Then in Contracts I got a C+, which was my lowest grade, but considering I failed the midterm (it was my lowest midterm grade), it means I probably got a B or better on the final, and that I am proud of this because the multiple choice where unbelievably hard and the essay was on output contracts, a topic I was not only absent for, but such a footnote type of concept. I got a B+ in Civil Procedure, in which I am very proud of because I also got below the mean on the midterm. I probably studied the hardest for this class and know I got an A on the final, but my midterm grade brought me down to a B+. I am proud of that grade because when I went in to talk to the professor after the midterm and I told her, "I did terrible," hoping she would say, "no you didn't do that bad," instead she said, "ok, so what are you going to do about it." I listened to CDs on Civ Pro (its the secret to first year classes I think, CDs...they are awesome)learned all the rules and spent so much time on it, I actually enjoy the subject. Luckily I accidently learned things we will be covering next semester, so I am looking forward to it. Then in Torts I got an A. I hit the mean on the midterm, so I must of really rocked that final, but I didn't come out of it feeling that great. I actually thought my essay was lacking, but I knew I did well on the multiple choice. A friend of mine gave me her outline for that class and I used it all semester, so I owe her my graditude. In my Legal writing class I got a B+, but honestly, I'm going to fight that because there is no way I didn't get an A. I got two wrong the midterm and one wrong on the final. I destoryed that class and have a theory on how they messed up. I ended up with a 3.4 gpa overall, .1 from Dean's list, which I'd be on if I got that A in writing or if I knew what was going on at midterm time. Seriously, if those midterms wouldn't have counted I'd be near the top of my class I think. So, I learned a lot. One, I am very motivated because I know what to expect and how much work it is going to take. I also know it is not impossible, so I'm really going to work for all As next semester and minimum B+s. I'm taking all the same classes (second part), so I know what to expect. I need to talk to my contracts professor and find out how to approach her class because my technique is not what it needs to be and I feel like I know contracts as well as the next guy in that class, but maybe my lack of citing cases, or memorizing the restatements is what hurt me. Of course all this talk is easy and I am realistic and know I am inherently lazy, but I figure I'll enjoy this pumped up feeling while it lasts. I mean, I have nothing else to do in Miami, but law school, so I'd better pimp it out.

My mom bought a new car. I helped her out on picking the right one, a 4runner, and understanding her how her interest rate and price will affect her payment. We got a great deal, $250 over invoice and the promotional 2.9 interest rate. We got an extra 1000 dollars on the trade in based on a mistake, so overall the deal kept getting better. The salesman was our neighbor and my mom has been talking to him about it for about 6 months, so he went out of his way to help her out. It was actually a nice buying experience and the truck runs so great. It even has a sun roof. I'm also happy that I get to use it everytime I am down and visiting.

My aunt started to write I guess an autobiography of sorts. I wasn't looking foward to reading it, but I sat down to give it a try. I was floored, not by the writing style, but by the subject matter, and about how life looks in retrospect. I learned a lot about my grandparents, my mother, their poverty, her struggles and her and her family. I think I have been through a lot with losing Vero and heartbreaks through the years, but reading about what she lived really made me appreciate life a lot more. Little things like foreshadowing in her life, random blessings from God and the how the meaning of some experiences are not known until the future. Reading about how my uncle's brother died at 24 in a car accident and how his sister recently died of cancer really made an impact on me. I always tell myself the key to life is perspective. If you see things in a good way then they will be good, but if you see them in a bad way, then they of course will be bad. You can't positively think yourself out of bad things in your life, but reading about her struggles with her positive take, and honest take when she was desprate or hurting, really made me think that had I lived that life I would not be able to write about it or view it in the postive way she did, something I need to work on for myself. It also made me want to start writing more and start my own retrospective view of my life before I start to forget things. The problem too is that I try to forget and not think about things that don't make me happy, so I forget a lot of things and lots of things are starting to get blurred. I'll sometimes go back just a few years and read and entry and I'll have totally forgotten that those things happened.

the phone didn't ring