Wonderful Wednesday

Two really cool things happened yesterday. First off, my journal made the front page of the Georgetown Law Weekly for our Relay for Life team! Click on the article to see a larger version (I'm the one kneeling with a baseball cap on):

Secondly, I was offered (and accepted) a spot on the Human Rights Institute/Georgetown Human Rights Action 2010-2011 fact-finding mission! In brief, it's a five credit, year-long course in which a team of students will research and produce a report on a human rights issue—next year's issue will be the repatriation of persons with mental disabilities. This is a huge opportunity for me, as it will be my first real foray into international human rights. And, we get to travel abroad to conduct interviews (it sounds like we'll be traveling to Mexico in January). Here's the full description:

This year-long experiential seminar is designed to support students participating in the Human Rights Institute/Georgetown Human Rights Action fact-finding project. These projects give students an opportunity to work as human rights investigators—researching a human rights problem in depth, conducting extensive interviews on the subject, drafting a comprehensive report on their findings, and engaging in related advocacy. Through this course, students will gain the substantive background and skills needed to carry out this work. Each year, Georgetown Human Rights Action and the Human Rights Institute identify a new topic on which to work. In 2010-2011, the selected topic is Safe Repatriation for Persons with Mental Disabilities. In the fall, the weekly seminar will cover relevant substantive law and policy on this subject, as well as fact-finding skills and methodology. In January 2011, we will travel as a group to conduct interviews on this subject. In the spring, students will draft a final report and engage in advocacy surrounding their findings; there will be seven 2-hour class sessions to guide students through these processes. Over the year, students will be expected to devote an additional 110 hours outside of class time to this project; all students must submit a record of this time. Grading for all credits will occur at the end of the spring semester. The letter grade will be based on individual memos and advocacy assignments, a joint pre-mission memo, co-teaching a class session, and a joint final report.

My heart is filled with joy about this opportunity. Thank you, Lord!

Celebrity

Relay for Life was a lot of fun last night! In sum, I raised $365, and my team raised close to $2,500--thanks to everyone for your support! The Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy was out in force, handing out pamphlets to educate students on the connections between cancer and poverty. We even met President DeGioia, and gave him a copy of the journal. Heh, we also "met" Scruff McGruff the Crime Dog. And, while wearing my Cal baseball cap, I discovered that there are a lot of people on main campus who are Bear fans for one reason or another. Go Bears!

Matt and Bryan (two of my GJPLP teammates) and I decided to attempt to walk a marathon while at Relay! The event was on the football field, so we didn't have the benefit of an actual track, but we figured that six laps around the field at 300 yards per lap is a mile (300 yds x 6 laps = 1,800 yds; 1 mile = 1,760 yds).

By the end of the event, we had to revise our goal to 20 miles, which we completed! There were several factors that contributed to our inability to finish the full marathon:

• Interruptions for ceremonies (the event was only 12 hours long)
• A narrow and crowded pseudo-track
• A thunderstorm with 25-mph winds
• Lack of energy from staying up all night
• Blisters on our feet and aching knees
• No actual preparation or training

I had a big blister on my right foot, so I ended up walking the last 10 miles barefoot, which was actually kind of nice on the AstroTurf. Unfortunately, it rained pretty much the entire time, but at least that kept us from getting too hot while speed-walking. 20 miles is definitely the farthest I've ever walked, and gives me a new appreciation for the sheer madness of people who run marathons.

The other neat thing about Relay was that I came home with a goldfish! Matt won the fish, but realized that it wouldn't be very compatible with his cat, so Jess and I have adopted it for now. The journal decided to name the fish Tracy Chapman (a reference to a song played at our journal's orientation). If it survives the summer, maybe we'll keep it in the journal office this fall?!

Anyhow, after Relay, I got home around 6 am, slept for some of the day, and spent the rest of the day hobbling around the apartment (my legs are so stiff!) and studying for finals (two weeks away, eek!). This evening, Jess and I headed to the law school to watch a Georgetown Gilbert and Sullivan Society production of H.M.S. Pinafore, which was excellent! I had a bunch of friends in the show, and laughed so much.

Before the show started, I happened to notice a man sitting four rows in front of me who looked somewhat familiar to me. "No way," I thought to myself. "Why would he even be here?" I looked up a photo of him on my iPhone, just to make sure, and then turned to Jess excitedly and said, "Look! It's the Chairman of the Fed! It's Bernanke!" And, indeed, it was:

Do you see the back of his head? Balding, blue shirt, center of the photograph. I'm sorry for the terrible quality, but it was very dark in the auditorium. It was definitely him, though! He did turn around at one point, and I caught sight of his distinctive beard. I have determined that people like Bernanke are my celebrities. I may know nothing about pop culture, but I absolutely freak out when I spot the people who run the government. D.C. is my Hollywood.

Speaking of D.C. "celebrity" sightings, I failed to mention that when David visited a couple of weeks ago, we saw Nancy Pelosi during our tour of--where else?--Congress. We were in Statutory Hall when, unannounced, Pelosi and a bunch of staffers walked right by us! David and I gawked at her, mere feet away, and she smiled at us. I was unable to respond, and just continued to stare at her, slack-jawed. Once she had exited the room, I was very frustrated by the rest of our tour group for not even noticing her, but I suppose most middle schoolers wouldn't recognize the Speaker of the House. Sadness.

Fight like a Hoya!

Relay for Life is Friday! While I've surpassed my individual goal of raising $300, the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy is still working hard to reach our team goal of $2,000. Please help us to reach our goal!

This year, on Thursday, April 15th, 2010, Relay at Georgetown is trying to add another $100,000 in 24 hours. If you would like to find out more about the $100,000 day check out this video that was shown at the last team captain's meeting. Here is the YouTube clip:



Please support me in the fight against cancer and make a gift to my team. I appreciate your support and thank you for taking the time to read this post!

Join Me and Fight Like A HOYA! Hoya Saxa!

Peace,
Amanda

P.S. - Please read on for a letter from Megan Quail, our Relay for Life 2010 Event Chair, who wrote to us about why Relay for Life means so much to her personally.

When my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2001, I was terrified, but I always knew things would be ok. They had to be. My mom is my hero, my rock, my everything. Touched by my favorite Beatles song, “Let it be”, I found solace in the lyrical advice to let life find its answer for me. My mom had her left breast, lymph nodes from her armpit, and a muscle removed, but she walked away with her life.

Six years later, I lost a friend at age 19 to cancer. This time, I wasn’t so willing to “let it be”. Days after his funeral, I joined the Relay For Life committee. Not to sound like a walking cliché, but doing so changed my life. Six months after the 2009 Relay, I ran my first marathon for the American Cancer Society. Another six months later, I’m chairing my first Relay For Life event. With three days to go, there have been a lot of sleepless nights in preparation and excitement for the event. Unfortunately, cancer also never sleeps. Last week, it once again roared its ugly head and attacked my mom’s right breast. Now, in addition to preparing for Relay, my family is also preparing for my mother’s second mastectomy.

This time around, I’m not scared. I’m angry. At first, I didn’t think it was fair that my mom would have to lose another breast and months of her life to this terrible disease after everything I’ve done to fight it. But then, I realized that maybe my mom got cancer again to show me how much Relay For Life and the American Cancer Society have done towards finding a cure. Because of medical advancements, my mom CAN have a mastectomy to save her life. This year, I’m relaying for my mom. For the last 21 years, she’s been my hero. But this year, you are all my heroes.

Because of your support of the American Cancer Society, my mom WILL live to see my 22nd birthday. Because of you, I will live to see the day where someone with my mom’s diagnosis won’t have to undergo surgery or chemotherapy at all to eradicate the cancer cells. Because of you, we will find a cure for cancer in my lifetime. Thank you for your support and for being my hero.

Fight Like A Hoya,

Megan Quail
2010 Event Chair

Relay for Life

I will be participating in my fourth Relay for Life the third weekend in April with a team of my fellow editors on the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy. This involves raising funds for the American Cancer Society, and I would love your support. Anything you can contribute will have an impact (even $10), and we greatly appreciate your help. Please help me to fight cancer through Relay for Life! You can made a donation by visiting my Relay page.

My journal is participating in Relay for Life to raise awareness about how cancer severely impacts poverty in America in a number of ways:

• Poor people lack access to quality health care and are more likely than others to die of cancer.
• Poor people endure greater pain and suffering from cancer than most Americans.
• Poor people face substantial obstacles to obtaining and using health insurance and often do not seek needed care if they cannot pay for it.
• Poor people and their families must make extraordinary personal sacrifices to obtain and pay for health care.
• Cancer education and outreach efforts are insensitive and irrelevant to many poor people.
• Fatalism about cancer prevails among the poor and prevents them from gaining quality health care.

In light of these devastating facts, I hope that you will join me and the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy in bringing us a step closer to a world where cancer can no longer claim another year of anyone’s life. Thank you for your support.

Spring Has Sprung

As a certain friend somewhere west of the 405 has mentioned (or at least alluded to) repeatedly, I've been rather absent from the blogosphere since late February. What can I say? Life, especially post-Spring Break, has been hurtling along at breakneck speed.

Academic rigors aside, a ton of fun and interesting things have happened in the past few weeks. However, you don't want to read an absurdly long post, and, to be frank, I don't have time to write it! So, here's my compromise: for each of the major fun things that have happened, I'll write a tweet-length commentary. An experiment in brevity could do me some good.

I went chocolate tasting with the DC Cal Alumni Association at the U.S. Botanic Gardens, and discovered that I like quality dark chocolate.

I did Phase II of the Prayer in Daily Life Retreat, focused on major life events. I learned that 2004 - 2005 were especially formative.

Spring Break to California was a relaxing visit with my family, and I helped Robert pick out a ukulele. Wish I had visited Berkeley, though.

I attended a daylong Refugee Act Conference at school, which greatly complemented the Refugee Law and Policy class I'm taking this semester.

I had the second (and final) full weekend of my negotiations seminar. Possibly the best class I've taken at Georgetown Law.

Fr. Orsy gave an interesting lecture on the historical origins of international human rights, examining the works of Francisco de Vitoria.

I saw the Hoya Lawyas (Georgetown law professors) beat the Hills Angels (U.S. Representatives) at the Home Court charity basketball game.

David spontaneously visited me in DC! We saw, well, everything. We also attended a great play at the Kennedy Center called Master Class.

Amanda J. was in town to visit grad schools! I finally saw Arlington Cemetery, which is gorgeous this time of year with the cherry blossoms.

I went with some friends to Bach's Mass in B Minor at the Kennedy Center. It was incredible, especially the credo. The tenors were spirited.

I attended Easter Vigil on main campus, and was deeply moved by the baptisms. Incredibly, the two-and-a-half hours flew by. So joyous!

I organized the CSA's second-annual Easter Brunch, which was delicious and well-attended. We surprised the security guards with leftovers.

Rachmaninoff

Last night, I went to the Kennedy Center for a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra with some friends. We heard Auerbach's Requiem for Icarus, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18+, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36+.

I know very little about classical music, but I do know that I like it. Last night's performance was dramatic, passionate, surprising, touching, haunting, and, at times, a little bit crazy. The Auerbach piece was delightfully jarring. It is a contemporary piece (composed in 2006), which provided an interesting juxtaposition against the Rachmaninoff (1901) and Tchaikovsky (1878). There was a considerable amount of plucking of the string instruments, and the first chair violinist played the most ethereal, chilling high notes.

My favorite performance of the evening was definitely Denis Matsuev as the pianist in the Rachmaninoff. I had listened to the concerto several times this past week to get a feel for it, but an audio recording simply cannot convey how incredibly difficult that piece is to play. I was blown away! We had wonderful seats through the Kennedy Center's Attend program (best seats in the house for only $10 if you're under 26), so we were close enough to appreciate the impassioned expressions that Matsuev kept making during the performance.

I was also delighted by the little encore that Matsuev did after multiple standing ovations--an incredible In the Hall of the Mountain King! I am so excited that there is a video of him playing it on Youtube:

Equally entertaining was the conductor, James Gaffigan. I love it when the conductor is extremely expressive through his movements, and Gaffigan did not disappoint. I think it helps that he is so young--only 30! During the scherzo of the Tchaikovsky, he actually put down his baton and went all-out gesturing with his hands.

Events like these remind me how fortunate I am to be living in Washington, D.C., surrounded by so much culture and history. Seeing a world-class orchestra for the price of a movie ticket makes me so happy.

I'm Awake

Last year, I received a rather poignant fortune cookie fortune:

It's amazing how much good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit.

That fortune came to mind during the Gospel reading at this morning's Ash Wednesday Mass, especially Matthew 6:5-6:

When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

Whenever I read this passage, I feel a little twinge of guilt in my stomach, because I sometimes ignore the Lord's call to humility. This morning, for example, I was kind of excited about wearing ashes on my forehead all day, and this passage makes me question my motives. The point isn't to get attention for one's piety. The ashes represent my repentant spirit at the beginning of Lent, which is between me and God. And yet, I shouldn't wash off the ashes, because, well, I'm certainly not ashamed of my relationship with God. Ideally, the fact that I had ashes on my forehead should not have had any impact upon how I conducted myself today. To put it another way, I should always act as though I have ashes on my forehead, because I am always representing Christ through my interactions with others.

The service I attended was in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of the National Shrine. The presiding priest at Mass said in his homily that Ash Wednesday is like an alarm clock that goes off once a year to wake us up from our spiritual slumber. That really resonated with me. I'm awake, Lord! Ash Wednesday is my favorite liturgical season because it motivates me to maintain a higher level of spiritual discipline.

This year, I'm more focused on doing than giving things up. I want to be more mindful of how I spend my time, because my busyness often gets in the way of my relationship with God. So, one one thing I am "giving up," so to speak, is wasting time on the Internet. I am only going to go on websites like Facebook and Twitter once per day. I'm not giving them up completely for Lent because I don't think they're a vice. I think it's good that these websites allow me to keep in touch with friends. However, I don't need to check those sites as often--dare I say, compulsively--as I do. I am amazed, one day in, how many times I felt a nervous urge to go online, as though on autopilot. I'm going to try to channel those moments toward prayer.

The main focus of my Lent will be a different discipline for each day of the week, accompanied by a virtue upon which to meditate (in response to the seven deadly sins). I suggested this when brainstorming what to do for Lent last year, and this year I'm going to try it. Here is my schedule for each week this Lent:

Sundays: read the Sunday Missal, focus on charity (contra: greed)

Mondays: fast, focus on temperance (contra: gluttony)

Tuesdays: do Bible study, focus on diligence (contra: sloth)

Wednesdays: do prayers of intercession, focus on kindness (contra: envy)

Thursdays: pray the Rosary, focus on chastity (contra: lust)

Fridays: do the Liturgy of the Hours, focus on patience (contra: wrath)

Saturdays: go to Reconciliation, focus on humility (contra: pride)

I will also be going through a booklet called "Not By Bread Alone: Daily Reflections for Lent," which provides a reflection, a meditation, and a prayer related to each day's Mass readings. I've used this booklet the past couple years, and find that it works well for me as a morning devotional.

Also, next week I will be making a Prayer in Daily Life retreat through Georgetown Law's Campus Ministry. This is "phase two" of the retreat that I went on 1L year. It will be interesting to look back on last year and contemplate my spiritual journey through the first half (nearing two-thirds!) of law school. I'm glad that the retreat will be during the first full week of Lent, to set the tone for the season.

Now, it might seem odd to discuss humility issues on my blog, followed by a list of all the things I'm doing for Lent. Isn't that kind of like bragging? I hope not. I don't intend for this to be me showing off. Rather, I'd like my blog to be a forum for spiritual growth. Let's keep one another accountable this Lenten season, dear readers! What are you doing for Lent? You're in my prayers.