About Me
AQ: Lawyer+Writer/Cheese Lover+Bird Watcher/Human Advocate+ Passionate Communicator/Introverted Extrovert (I’m also the person who can’t figure out website development well enough to make the “About Me” button work…..yet…but I’m the Queen of Work-Arounds.)
I love words. I love to speak them, listen to them, write them, look at them and play with them. In the very early part of 2021, I registered for the Adirondack Center for Writing’s late June Women’s Writing Weekend at the historic Great Camp Sagamore in Raquette Lake, New York. I registered so early, in fact, that when the reminder came up on my Google calendar for the event, I had almost completely forgotten I’d signed up for it at all. However, this quiet early summer weekend in the woods, surrounded by strong women who had joined together to write and share, inspired me to truly reflect and refocus myself, my work and my goals. As the summer went on and we embraced the few five hot minutes of post-COVID life we did have, I was able to spend time with so many good friends and meet a lot of new ones, too. It’s always community that brings me to my best self, every time. So I took a chance on a few new opportunities, and put myself out there.
This fall, I will begin a professional certificate program in Restorative Justice through Vermont Law School, where, thanks to the generosity of the Adirondack Foundation and its generous donors, I was awarded a full program scholarship. I am excited about continuing my ongoing legal education (I AM the person who buys school supplies every year for myself at the end of every single summer, after all) and as I enter year 27 of my career, I’m intrigued by alternative methods for system-wide change that might enhance the ways I can serve people in Essex County. When you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten. If the last twenty years have taught us anything in this world, it’s that exploring and truly considering new ideas for solving perennial problems is something we all need to get better at embracing.
I am also thrilled to have been selected for a fellowship to attend the 2021Anne LaBastille Writer’s Residency through the Adirondack Center for Writing, made possible by the estate of Anne LaBastille. From October 3-17, I will be deep in the woods at Twichell Lake with five other writers to focus solely on writing projects. I am honored to have been awarded this generous opportunity and to spend an entire fourteen days in pursuit of creative endeavors, alone with words.
Most of all, I’m excited to be growing. At 50, I have a lot of goals left to reach. After many seasons of life, I’m making time for it and choosing who I want to be (thanks, Maria xo). I’m happy to be here, right now, in September 2021, exactly where I am, and looking forward.
