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Graduation and after

News, Work, School ·Friday April 19, 2024 @ 13:10 EDT (link)

My last day of classes for my JD at Indiana University Maurer School of Law (Bloomington, IN) was on Wednesday, April 17. No more getting up at 0600 or earlier Mondays to drive to school! I have only one exam—my other classes were writing or performance classes—Cybersecurity Law, next Wednesday. After that, the requirements of my degree will be complete and graduation is on Saturday, May 4th (yes, may the fourth be with you…).

I've also submitted my application to the Indiana bar and expect to write the exam at the end of July. Given the need to travel so much to see David currently, I don't think I will be able to practice because I haven't seen any remote legal jobs, but I will never be more prepared to write the exam. There are, however, remote engineering jobs, and my best option compatible with David's best interest in having a present father would be to seek out those jobs, as I have begun (happily) doing (because I love software engineering). It would be great to find an engineering job that also leveraged skills from my JD, such as cybersecurity. I should note, because my last post said I could only see David on holidays, that since second semester in 2L (second year), I've only had classes from Monday to Wednesday and have therefore been able to see David every other week Thursday through Sunday—but I have had to travel the 400 miles each way to where he's kept; he still hasn't been allowed to come home over all these years.

Lately David and I have been playing some old original Nintendo (NES) games on the Raspberry Pi I bring for us to watch movies on; we've tried a bunch besides Super Mario Bros., and he likes Blue Shadow (apparently Shadow of the Ninja in the US), Castlevania, Bonk's Adventure, and Bubble Bobble, of the ones we've tried (working through the collection alphabetically). We still like to spend a good amount of time outside—playing soccer, basketball, throwing rocks in the river, and on our traditional (2-4 mile) hike on the last day I'm there (a Sunday with school, but will be Saturday after I'm back to full weeks). I am hoping some of the biases against me (for being a father, for being from out of town—small town insularity has been a significant issue, and being pro se) relax a little and David gets to come home, first for my graduation and then for all or most of the summer. But we have hoped for a modicum of justice for a long time and been disappointed.

For most of my life I've been working full time every day in a very predictable course; and now I don't have that, and it is tough not knowing, and having to trust that God will work things out for good, as he has promised. I have hoped for a long time that our family will be restored, and if you pray, pray that God does that great work and changes my wife's hard heart.