As mentioned in my last post, my family and some friends of ours visited New York City for the long weekend. It was great to explore the city with all of them and truly spend the whole weekend just running around New York. Prior to this visit, I had spent most of my time in New York prioritizing seeing friends and catching up with them. While great, this did not leave me with many opportunities to just explore the city and all of its life, restaurants, and more.
Some highlights include walking around the High Line, visiting the 9/11 memorial, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, and meandering around Central Park. While many of these activities are quite touristy and not necessarily what I think of as an average day in New York, it was still fun to go to so many different neighborhoods in the city and see the parts of it that I generally don’t. I was also able to take everyone to some of my favorite spots for dessert, drinks, and just walking around. In particular, my sister and I got to go to our favorite fried chicken place in the city – a hole-in-the-wall spot in the East Village that neither of us had been to since the pandemic hit.
In many ways, I find that it is easy to settle into a city and forget all that it has to offer. As I know I will return to New York City many times in the years to come (and potentially live here), I typically do not feel any sort of urgency to explore. It was great to be reminded of how fun it can be to actually take advantage of the city, and I have already made plans to go to the Museum of Natural History next weekend.
On the work front, I have been working on a fascinating project these past couple weeks and have been enjoying it so much. While I cannot disclose any details due to confidentiality, it is a much larger and more creative project than the more discrete research memos I have been conducting so far during the internship. It has been fascinating to just immerse myself into an area of law for an entire week and try to brainstorm creative ways to advance reproductive rights through this research.
It was daunting at first to get assigned this project and try to understand the scope of what I would be doing. But the PPFA attorneys are so helpful and considerate that I knew that I would get all the guidance and feedback I needed along the way. They have been so thoughtful about emphasizing that as much as this internship is for them to gain from the work I produce, it is also for me to try new types of work and challenge myself in a supportive environment. That encouragement gave me the confidence needed to really apply myself to this work, and I ended up truly loving it. Especially as the reproductive rights movement is in such a dark time where in we are rebuilding in many ways, it was fascinating to conduct my own research into potential new strategies in one area – and to get feedback from more experience attorneys on my ideas.
Finally, I want to conclude my reflecting on how grateful I am for the people in my life. This past weekend, I had a long conversation with a couple of friends about my dilemmas regarding future careers, especially in light of the firm recruiting that has been ramping up over the last few weeks. Talking with them has meant the world to me and has helped me feel so grounded. While I know I could have traveled to an exciting location, or at least explored a new city to me, during this summer, I am so glad that I did not. I have been able to gain such practical insight into what life could look like in New York city doing impact litigation through this internship. And more importantly, I have been able to spend time with my friends of many years and get their advice as I navigate the first of many challenging decisions relating to my career.
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