Putting My J.D. to Good Use

Today my firm participated in a Service Day at a local, underprivileged elementary school. Our group of 8 corporate lawyers (7 associates and 1 axe-swinging partner) was assigned to "landscaping and light demolition." I wasn't sure what this would entail, but I was excited to spend the day outside helping others- and the fact that I would burn a few of the 10 billion calories I ingested at Fogo de Chao at an offer dinner last night was only a side benefit. When I arrived at the school at 8:30 (with the gardening gloves I'd picked up at Walgreens along the way), there were almost 400 other professionals ready to help (professionals as in lawyers, programmers, and engineers, not professional as in "we know how to install water irrigation systems"). The school got a full "extreme makeover" and the teachers took their classes on tours throughout the day to see what was happening - the kids were so excited! One group painted the entire exterior of the building, another turned a weed-filled lot into a beautifully landscaped courtyard, another ran a "Field Day" for the kids, and yet another painted the interior of the building. My group had the opportunity to pull 5 dead trees out of the ground, plant 35 live trees, and dig a trench and install a water irrigation system around the (very long) perimeter of the school.

The trees we were assigned to remove were about 15 feet high and all we had were the tools we brought with us - two pick-axes and a few shovels. It turns out that even a dead and spindly tree is pretty firmly entrenched in the ground. I also found out that digging holes in Austin soil, which is basically a collection of rocks and dirt so dry it might as well be rocks because we've had two rain showers in the past four months, is really freaking hard. But our team worked hard and got those old trees out and put all the new ones in- I haven't felt that proud or impressed with myself in quite some time. I almost feel inspired to do go plant a few more trees in our backyard! Or, at least supervise JP while he does it- I now know all about "shaking the roots" and other important tree-planting details. My arms are going to hurt tomorrow, but it's nice to know that I really used my body today. I almost miss that feeling enough to start working out again.

It was fun to see a different side of my colleagues. One of the associates was firing out emails on her blackberry in between taking swings with the axe- she's working on a huge deal in Tokyo and is flying out there next week for the closing, she was pretty much running the deal from a playground in East Austin. The partner, one of the few I haven't worked with yet, is a lot of fun and took us out to his favorite dive bar, where we proceeded to drink five pitchers of Shiner at 3:00 in the afternoon.

So it was a productive day. I'm a little sunburned, completely exhausted, and feeling pretty good about helping a school that needed it. I've also put pick-axe on my Christmas list- those things get the job done.