California Dreamin'

I know I'm far behind on my blogging - I'm not even sure if anyone still checks this! I've had a bit of trouble sleeping the past few nights and have a bit of free time tonight, so I'm hoping that a bit of writing before bed will have the same therapeutic effect it did in Namibia.

I'm back in California and in the midst of Stanford's on-campus interview process. For me, this means 19 law firm interviews in 12 days. Fortunately, all the interviews are held on campus and only 20 minutes apiece. I enjoy meeting people from different firms and it's great to be back on this sunny, beautiful campus with my classmates and friends - and it's surprisingly (scarily) easy to talk about myself day after day.

Unfortunately, I'm growing frustrated with the process and letting it get under my skin more than it should. At this point offers for callback interviews are few and far between, for me and from the sounds of it, for many of my classmates. I try to remind myself I'm surrounded by brilliant, ambitious, kind, and generous people - I'm proud to call myself a Stanford student. But (repeated) rejection is hard no matter how talented the competition. Maybe I should rethink my interest in IP litigation - that seems to be the only practice area that's hiring out here.

Namibia, of course, is a topic of interest. Unlike my blog postings, my interview answers focus mostly on work inside the LAC and less on my extra-cirricular activities. As exotic a place as it may sound to those who aren't familiar with Southern Africa, the more I think about it, what surprised me the most about my experience isn't how different things were in Namibia - it's how similar people are no matter where you go. It's cheesy, and I haven't had to use this response in interviews yet thank goodness, but no matter where I go and how many language / cultural barriers I stumble through, a smile and honest eyes go along way. Even I'm surprised how quickly I felt "normal" in Namibia - even with the safety concerns, I still chatted it up and became friends with cab drivers, made silly faces at babies I passed on the street, flirted in minimal /broken English with the security guard and the LAC, and joked with the housekeeping staff at Puccini about traveling Italians and their fondness for sweet bread and Nutella at breakfast. We're not as different as we think.