For What It's Worth

With some hesitation, this post will deviate from our general "here's the latest trip" or "time for Patten pictures" blog theme. After reading a few thought provoking posts from my good friend Daniel Wayne, I decided it's high-time I add something other than pictures to the blogosphere.

So, here you go.

I spent the last year in law school. Joy. I have two pieces of advice: (1) find a good wife; and (2) serve in the church.

#1 - Find a good wife. Kristin supported me like you can't believe. I never heard a word of complaint. In fact, she somehow convinced me she enjoyed my daily rundown of "listen to this crazy Torts case" and "can you believe the Justices interpreted the Constitution this way," so much so that I often spent the 5 minutes walking from the shuttle to our apartment anticipating sharing info with her.

We experienced much of the first year together - phone calls almost every day at lunch, parties at law school friend's houses, reading my memo / brief to her (which she did NOT edit - for you Nazi law school students out there), her edits on my resume (which she did edit - obviously), practice interviews with Kristin acting as the stern interviewer, her calm reassurance when I woke up in a sweat at 2 in the morning before my first exam in the fall, delicious homemade lunches, her acceptance / friendship / admiration of my good law school buddies' cultures and belief systems, and the list goes on and on. I could not have survived without her.

So, first piece of advice - find a good spouse.

#2 - Serve in the church. We moved into our current ward, a married student ward, during the second week of law school. I had heard stories of graduate programs swallowing students to the point the students had no time to attend, let alone serve, in the church. However, I also knew of graduate students who did serve (Tyler is a fitting example - I even got to see him teach the genius of a compass to his concrete-trapped-Philadelphian scouts when Kristin and I visited - one of my favorite memories of that trip). So, from the beginning I knew I had a choice to make - serve, or use school as an excuse.

After only a few weeks in the ward I received my favorite calling to date - ward organist. I think I surprised a few people with my choice of stops, and I know Kristin patiently endured a few awkward moments in sacrament meeting, but I loved playing the organ and I loved the convenience of magnifying my calling during the same time period I would have been attending church anyway. I hoped to remain ward organist for all three years of law school - I even got organ shoes for Christmas.

I did well in school my first semester. Not as well as I hoped (but who does?), but okay. I planned to devote even more time to my studies my second semester and hopefully improve my performance. The Lord had other plans (at least on the time front). Mid-February I received a call which (gasp?) required time outside of church hours (as most do). Kristin and I knew the right thing to do, accept the call, but it scared us (or at least me - Kristin possesses [I'm not kidding here] unshakable faith). How could I improve my performance in less time? Shortly after retiring my organ shoes my dad gave me a blessing and I went to work.

Guess what, it all worked out. Second semester went well, I served in the church and enjoyed myself all the while. Looking back it seems so simple. Yet at various times I had to make difficult choices; like whether to study the day before my Con Law exam or do church stuff, or whether to attend another study group or do church stuff.

Perhaps my dad described my experience best. After all was said and done he noted in an email, "what can we say about you having accepted a time-consuming calling and still seen the increase that you did other than, hard as you work, the Lord's hand is in this too." Amen.

So just remember - find a good spouse and serve in the church. Everything else will take care of itself.