Letter to a Injured Pre-Soldier in Marine Boot Camp

This morning I heard about your minor set-back. But I hope you're not too worried champ. I know you can make it through. Sometimes I wonder about set-backs and why they happen at all, but that's a lot of life, and being human, and it's how you play when you're down that really counts.

As for me, I hate interviewing. I went all the way to Newark this morning to meet with a lawyer at an immigration law office. Two hours on the train, and a half an hour walk later, I found myself trapped in a room with an interviewer getting his kicks by throwing condescending jabs at an unsuspecting candidate for an internship. By about 10 minutes into the interview, I wanted to press the mute button and go on home. I had to listen to him for an hour instead and missed the earlier train back. I would have to be very desperate to work there -- very desperate or just plain masochistic.

Last night I got 3 hours of sleep because I was up writing a paper in Spanish. I sent my resume to this amazing international human rights place in D.C. -- which then wanted a formal writing sample on a human rights issue in Spanish.

I said sure -- I have scads of free time.

I said, why not? I haven't written a formal paper in Spanish in 3 years, but how hard could it be?

I said, I love working hard for things I probably won't get, and since I don't already have enough to do, I could really take on another daunting task.

It took me a week to get around to writing it, and I'm not even sure that they want it now. But I'll tell you what: I put my heart and soul into the grammar of that piece of art.

In the world of law school, I feel pretty good about all my classes, but they're still a lot of work. I have an outline of my final paper due this coming Monday, and I'll probably be awake all weekend working on it.

Suffice to say -- getting what you want is hard work -- in law school, in the Marines and in life in general.

So you-- I hope you're not too discouraged. While I really can't imagine what it's like to be you right now, I know it must suck to be held back and waiting. But you will make it through, and even if the set-back never ever seems to have been with good reason or to have done you any great service, at least you can take a step back and say: they're isn't a doubt that I'm human, and I have pulled through with magnificent grace.

Heal up real fast, brother Dave. Heal up.

Love,

Michelle

When the Dell Background Music Suddenly Stops But No One Speaks

Hello. You have entered into the Dell netherworld. The you-must-wait-forever music has ceased, there are coughing noises in the background, and you have lost all sense of how much time you have wasted attempting to speak with a Real Live Person.

You are listening to nothing. Reaching Out to the space between here and the dead end of a telephone line. You can't quite be sure whether or not there are Real Live Persons in the Dell netherworld of silence. Is it possible they hung up on you? Or maybe it's just a bad connection? If only someone were there to affirm the valor of your stubborn persistence.

YOU CAN'T HANG UP NOW AND NOT BY CHOICE. It's been at least an hour. Maybe two. Since You Got on the Phone. It would obviously be a sore waste of time to give up at this point. The netherworld will surely respond soon.

Hello?

Suddenly. The MUSIC RETURNS.

Netherworld closed. You-must-wait-forever is once again correctly defined by a feeling of the perpetual rising and falling of space between floors. At least they didn't hang up.