The year immediately following my graduation from college and the year immediately preceding my matriculation into law school, is the year I call my liminal stage. I was in a way, stuck in a grey area. I always forget about this year, mostly because it wasn't hugely momentous to me in terms of any particular achievement or life accomplishment. It just kind of happened and passed. It just was.
I interned in the summer, I studied for the LSAT in the fall, I applied to law schools in the winter, I worked again in the spring, and I took an academic course in the summer. I did a whole assortment of things... But not one steady, constant thing that I can look back and say, "Yeah, that's what I did that year, and it was great. Or bad. Or whatever." Maybe I feel that way because at the end of that year, there was no trophy to be awarded, no diploma to be presented, and no red ribbon to be cut as I crossed through the finish line. But that's because I didn't cross through any finish line. I was about to start something new, as I was preparing to enter law school in the fall, but there's no graduation ceremony or shiny medal when one exits a liminal stage.
A typical Saturday back in the day
I really do value that year though. There were times when I didn't know for what it mattered and for what it was worth. I took that year off for a reason, and so I always assumed that once that reason was realized (being accepted into a competitive law school), that was for what that year mattered and for what it was worth. But ultimately that year gave me something equally as valuable as that reason being realized. That year gave me hindsight. And that is something I would never take back getting the chance to have received.
En route to Accepted Students Day at my law school in 2013
All photos taken with iPhone 4S
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