Ten Years Since September 11, 2001

It has been a decade since the attacks on the 11th of September, 2001. And although I haven’t yet focused my thoughts and feelings about the subject, I almost feel as though I must post about 9/11 in some way — because of The Daily Post’s Post a Day 2011 challenge, I will be posting something today, and I can’t not acknowledge the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks. 

Losing Sleep Over Dreams

In the past ten or so years, I’ve only had a handful of nightmares — really closer to three or four — so bad that I couldn’t, or wouldn’t, go back to sleep after them. One of them was last night. My friend was dying, and I couldn’t do anything about it. Nothing. One second, I was with him in the nightmare, and the next, I was awake and completely disoriented, my mind still partially entangled in the nightmare, scrambling for my phone to send him a message and chanting “please don’t die please don’t die please don’t die.” 

If I Didn’t Need Money, I’d Be An Attorney

What would your profession be if you didn’t need money?

I’m aware that this is probably an unusual answer, but if I didn’t need money, I think I’d choose to be an attorney, in terms of a profession. Not just any old attorney, though — I would want to be an attorney for the Transformative Justice Law Project, TJLP (although I suppose a law project/organization with similar values and politics would be okay if I couldn’t be with TJLP). Definitely, in an immediate sense, I’d continue on as an intern with TJLP. Needing money is, after all, the biggest reason why I’m not staying in Chicago. If I were independently wealthy or won the lottery or something similar, I would definitely not be leaving.

I Love TJLP

“Dream big about how fierce and beautiful we want the world to be.”

I’ve only been interning with TJLP* (the Transformative Justice Law Project, about which I’ve blogged previously) for a matter of months, but it has already been one of the most outstanding experiences of my life. There is something really magical about TJLP — a combination of the people, the clients, the values upon which TJLP was founded, and maybe some kind of special TJLP essence.

And Why Should I Not Be Allowed to Run for President?

I know there numerous issues more pressing than this, and I realize that life isn’t fair, but can we just pause for a moment to note how unfair it is that I can’t run for President? As an international adoptee (a “naturalized citizen”), I am one of the few groups of people who, despite having lived in the United States and been a United States citizen for as long as I can remember (since I was six months old, which, in eight days, will be 22 years), are legally and constitutionally barred from running for the office of the President of the United States.