2008

Wow. When I think about how this year began, there is no way I could have predicted how it would end. It began with me finishing my final semester of law school, with an increasingly insecure and paranoid husband, whose threats of violence finally became too much to live with. While I was certain any attempt to escape would have disastrous consequences financially and possibly physically, I felt I had no other choice.

I cannot really even understand how I was able to leave an abusive husband in the middle of my last semester of law school and hold it together enough to get through that, moving, studying for my finals, and on top of that, preparing for, taking and actually passing the California Bar Exam. I must have been on auto-pilot or something, because even thinking about it now makes me nervous and a little scared.

But out of all that crap, a new and much better life has emerged. (Ok, yeah, insert your own "manure/flower" metaphor here.) I'm in a healthy relationship with someone I love and adore, where I am treated with respect and my intelligence is not viewed as a threat. I have a group of friends that I enjoy and see often. I am living in a house that is perfect for me, where I feel safe and comfortable. I am an attorney, licensed to practice law in California. I cannot think of anything I really lack in my life at this point. I am happy and I feel pretty lucky.