Law in Contemporary Society

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BriannaMorenoFirstEssay 2 - 12 Sep 2020 - Main.BriannaMoreno
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META TOPICPARENT name="FirstEssay"
It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.

"I've never met another Nicaraguan before!"

-- By BriannaMoreno - 28 Feb 2020

“Which side of my family are you referring to? The fascists or the communists?”

People resent grappling with difficult questions. Long story short, there were human rights abuses on both sides of the Nicaraguan revolution. My life has been informed by the complexities of this conflict. As such, I have always felt comfortable blatantly following my own path, oftentimes taking turns that take my peers by surprise. In the end, I didn’t have a choice but to follow my own lead. My path has led me here and the reality is that the more I climb in privilege and the more I access exclusive spaces, the more perspective I get into the macro-level forces which have torn my family apart, repeatedly ejected us from the familiar, and forcibly changes the nature of our family dynamics and values. What is my north? What is the difference between good and bad? At the most basic level, my family deserves dignity and to live in basic comfort. My grandmother and my parents traded so much of themselves away to afford me the opportunity to sit in these classrooms in pursuit of a career which simultaneously brings me immense fulfillment and provides for our financial autonomy.

Getting here

The trick is that getting to this point requires some degree of buying into the system. Buying into the system, in turn, serves to systematically isolate me from the people and places I love the most. The more perspectives I garner, the farther I stray from speaking the same language as the people closest to me in the world, the people for whom I live my life. In our household, you live life as a unit. That’s how they survived a civil war. But what happens when all the things you prayed for come true...and then they change you? It becomes my job to forge my path on my terms. I will not sacrifice the opportunities I worked so hard to access but at the same time I also will not sacrifice the relationships that got me here in the first place. People scoff at the idea. “The world will harden you.” If my grandmother’s heart remained soft after living the life she was dealt, I’m truly unconcerned. I know where my north lies.

Sacrifices

What does it mean for me to provide? What must I sacrifice? My dehumanization in these spaces is subtle, insidious, and relentless. So what’s my north? I need to be functional. Beyond functional, I need to be happy. I could provide my family every last opportunity/privilege/luxury, and it would all be a waste because my family will not accept my support if it comes at my own detriment. Not everyone prescribes to a purely individualistic worldview. At every turn, my family is factored into my decisional calculus. I have no problem working to the point where the basics are provided, my family can get the rest they deserve, and the children have the capital they need to access to unabashedly pursue their passions in the way I was able to. Creating a comfortable life for people who have nearly ground themselves into oblivion is not a sin.

Is it ever really that bad?

No matter which way I look at it, every step I take moving forward is a step that those who came before me never fathomed. The word privilege cannot possibly begin to encompass my reality at this moment. The spaces I access, the people I have met, the life I can continue to create for myself--all of these things exist because I stand on the shoulders of my loved ones, who sacrificed and shared our collective successes with me, who--despite every ounce of pain and uncertainty and fear--gave me their blessing to create my life on my terms. Yes, things can get stressful. No, it is not easy. But I don’t forget that there was once a time when I thought I could only dream of living the life I have now.

At every stage, I have had to be creative in forging my path forward. Professionally and academically, there was no one to look up to, no one who could tell me, “This is how you do it.” As a result, I have learned exactly how to parse out what works for me and what does not. It is jarring for people who feel more experienced, more jaded, more worldly than me to witness me steadfastly pursue my path on my terms. I entered law school because I have been passionate about the law since my first time interacting with it academically in high school. I pursued becoming an attorney because I have been infused with a desire to seek justice for people who lack access to a functional justice system. Members of my family have overthrown despots, and other members of my family have been anonymously tortured and killed in the name of revolution. I have had a conception of human rights since childhood. I am the first in my family to access this level of prestige and privilege. I cannot straddle these realities without having the grounding I have. People have always loved to tell me that I can’t have it all. I don’t know what “all” means to everyone else. I know that for me, it means fulfillment, joy, and providing for the people who make this life worth living.

This entire moment in my life, like so many other building blocks, are manifestations of dumb luck. I am no more deserving, no more intelligent, no more hard-working than scores of people just like me. There is no rhyme or reason why my seat has my name on it. However, if I am given an opportunity I will engage with it up to the point that I can retain my happiness and quality of life. I will do this on exactly my terms and I’ll do it one step at a time. What’s more creative than making something out of nothing?


You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable. To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" character on the next two lines:

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BriannaMorenoFirstEssay 1 - 28 Feb 2020 - Main.BriannaMoreno
Line: 1 to 1
Added:
>
>
META TOPICPARENT name="FirstEssay"
It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.

"I've never met another Nicaraguan before!"

-- By BriannaMoreno - 28 Feb 2020

“Which side of my family are you referring to? The fascists or the communists?”

People resent grappling with difficult questions. Long story short, there were human rights abuses on both sides of the Nicaraguan revolution. My life has been informed by the complexities of this conflict. As such, I have always felt comfortable blatantly following my own path, oftentimes taking turns that take my peers by surprise. In the end, I didn’t have a choice but to follow my own lead. My path has led me here and the reality is that the more I climb in privilege and the more I access exclusive spaces, the more perspective I get into the macro-level forces which have torn my family apart, repeatedly ejected us from the familiar, and forcibly changes the nature of our family dynamics and values. What is my north? What is the difference between good and bad? At the most basic level, my family deserves dignity and to live in basic comfort. My grandmother and my parents traded so much of themselves away to afford me the opportunity to sit in these classrooms in pursuit of a career which simultaneously brings me immense fulfillment and provides for our financial autonomy.

Getting here

The trick is that getting to this point requires some degree of buying into the system. Buying into the system, in turn, serves to systematically isolate me from the people and places I love the most. The more perspectives I garner, the farther I stray from speaking the same language as the people closest to me in the world, the people for whom I live my life. In our household, you live life as a unit. That’s how they survived a civil war. But what happens when all the things you prayed for come true...and then they change you? It becomes my job to forge my path on my terms. I will not sacrifice the opportunities I worked so hard to access but at the same time I also will not sacrifice the relationships that got me here in the first place. People scoff at the idea. “The world will harden you.” If my grandmother’s heart remained soft after living the life she was dealt, I’m truly unconcerned. I know where my north lies.

Sacrifices

What does it mean for me to provide? What must I sacrifice? My dehumanization in these spaces is subtle, insidious, and relentless. So what’s my north? I need to be functional. Beyond functional, I need to be happy. I could provide my family every last opportunity/privilege/luxury, and it would all be a waste because my family will not accept my support if it comes at my own detriment. Not everyone prescribes to a purely individualistic worldview. At every turn, my family is factored into my decisional calculus. I have no problem working to the point where the basics are provided, my family can get the rest they deserve, and the children have the capital they need to access to unabashedly pursue their passions in the way I was able to. Creating a comfortable life for people who have nearly ground themselves into oblivion is not a sin.

Is it ever really that bad?

No matter which way I look at it, every step I take moving forward is a step that those who came before me never fathomed. The word privilege cannot possibly begin to encompass my reality at this moment. The spaces I access, the people I have met, the life I can continue to create for myself--all of these things exist because I stand on the shoulders of my loved ones, who sacrificed and shared our collective successes with me, who--despite every ounce of pain and uncertainty and fear--gave me their blessing to create my life on my terms. Yes, things can get stressful. No, it is not easy. But I don’t forget that there was once a time when I thought I could only dream of living the life I have now.

At every stage, I have had to be creative in forging my path forward. Professionally and academically, there was no one to look up to, no one who could tell me, “This is how you do it.” As a result, I have learned exactly how to parse out what works for me and what does not. It is jarring for people who feel more experienced, more jaded, more worldly than me to witness me steadfastly pursue my path on my terms. I entered law school because I have been passionate about the law since my first time interacting with it academically in high school. I pursued becoming an attorney because I have been infused with a desire to seek justice for people who lack access to a functional justice system. Members of my family have overthrown despots, and other members of my family have been anonymously tortured and killed in the name of revolution. I have had a conception of human rights since childhood. I am the first in my family to access this level of prestige and privilege. I cannot straddle these realities without having the grounding I have. People have always loved to tell me that I can’t have it all. I don’t know what “all” means to everyone else. I know that for me, it means fulfillment, joy, and providing for the people who make this life worth living.

This entire moment in my life, like so many other building blocks, are manifestations of dumb luck. I am no more deserving, no more intelligent, no more hard-working than scores of people just like me. There is no rhyme or reason why my seat has my name on it. However, if I am given an opportunity I will engage with it up to the point that I can retain my happiness and quality of life. I will do this on exactly my terms and I’ll do it one step at a time. What’s more creative than making something out of nothing?


You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable. To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" character on the next two lines:

Note: TWiki has strict formatting rules for preference declarations. Make sure you preserve the three spaces, asterisk, and extra space at the beginning of these lines. If you wish to give access to any other users simply add them to the comma separated ALLOWTOPICVIEW list.


Revision 2r2 - 12 Sep 2020 - 19:31:17 - BriannaMoreno
Revision 1r1 - 28 Feb 2020 - 20:54:42 - BriannaMoreno
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