Be Careful What You Wish For

It’s been a busy week, even without accounting for the Pope’s funeral, Charlie & Camilla’s nuptials and revelations about John Tamihere's verbal incontinence. (JT is a Labour MP who went on record last week with his "honest" opinions and offended nearly everyone he works with as well as most of the Party's major constituencies. He may have single-handedly doomed Labor's shot at a cake walk re-election.) Last Tuesday I finally got my official assessment from the New Zealand Law Society, confirming that all I need to do to become qualified as an attorney, ahem, a barrister and solicitor, is to pass the six exams I’ve been studying for. All well and good, that’s what I was expecting and it just reinvigorated my determination to get through as much as possible before I get busy with other things.

Then, of course, other things will pop up: that evening when I got home from the library, I found an e-mail invitation to present a half-hour seminar on a commercial law topic and make myself available for interview. On April 28th. I should mention that, back in early February, I applied for a job as Lecturer in Commercial Law at the University of Auckland. It was sort of a lark, since I don’t have (a) any academic credentials or (b) any experience with New Zealand law. But I’ve always thought I’d like teaching so figured I didn’t have anything to lose.

After the initial shock wore off, I realized I’d have to go through with it. Yikes! My first reaction to any kind of public speaking opportunity is sheer, abject terror. But I managed to get through a couple of pretty harrowing presentations last year while working on Solestia. And I did speak to groups at the Bank a few times over the years. It never actually killed me. So I’ll probably live through this, too.

Once that was settled, I had to find a topic. I didn’t get much sleep that night, but I came up with half a dozen possibilities and narrowed them down to the most promising by morning. It’s a good thing I’ve been spending the last month getting acquainted with the law library here - it really helped to know my way around. I’ve been finding materials and I'm rather enjoying myself. In fact, I’m pretty excited about the whole thing. I’d really like this to work out, but I figure it’s a good experience, whatever happens.

Cheers,
Sandie