I used to feel extremely jealous.  Other people had mentors who did everything for them, or who were at least more nurturing.  Carol, however, was a soccermom on speed.  She worked, although not that much, partied with other moms, went to sporting events, and even had time for yoga classes.  Every time it seemed I needed to be mentored she was on her way to yoga or daycare.  The few times that she was around someone else monopolized her attention.  But one day I realized that because she didn’t babysit me, I was forced successfully to learn on my own. 

She was my first friend in a new neighborhood.  I asked her about guys who lived there, thinking that as teenage girls we could bond while discussing boys.  She replied that she wasn’t really into guys, but at that moment I didn’t understand that she was a lesbian.  In high school she was always seen with a red-haired girl who appeared to be her polar opposite.  I never thought they might have been dating until recently.  It wasn’t until Re changed her name to something more manly and less bizarre that I realized she was living life as a man.

I expected someone more pretentious after being regailed with stories of his hipocrisy.  I tried to keep an open mind, despite the unhospitable restaurant he chose.  Nevertheless, my expectations were wrong.  He was funny and charming and not high maintenence.  I was shocked to discover that he had a sense of humor and was not afraid to joke about anyone in the family, including himself.  Oblivious to the practice of criminal law, he tried to bond over our careers.  Still, a lawyer is a lawyer, and there’s something about him that just screams lawyer to me.  What could it be?

Kerwin’s eyes were filled with light when I told him that I too spoke Spanish.  Although he criticized my pronunciation of the word “no”, he delighted in asking me questions that were too embarrassing for him to ask me in English.  He asked me how old I was and seemed shocked by my answer that I was 17 years old.  I’m not sure if he thought I was older or younger, but at 8 years old he was quite a charmer.  Unfortunately, that charming attitude did not go over well with teachers and administrators who labeled him a problem student.

He was known as Crime Boy due to a terrible prior criminal record.  At age 14 he had been convicted of 59 felonies.  He was a power lifter and a criminal.  He had committed armed robberies, burglaries, and other violent crimes.  I had the pleasure of representing him.  However, by the time I represented him, he was old and thin.  He looked like a completely different person than the muscular, tough child he once was.  He was one of the most polite clients I ever had.  Perhaps the system broke him, or perhaps he really did turn his life around.