How I Spent My Summer

After my Spring Contracts midterm I hopped on a plane to spend a week in Hawaii. The sunny beaches and fresh ocean breeze were incredible, and I came back to LA reinvigorated and excited for the rest of the semester.

Within a week, California shut down for Covid-19.

With summer coming, I enrolled in Loyola’s dual J.D./Tax LL.M. program. Students complete half of the LL.M. in a 10 week bonanza of tax courses. We attended online lectures, completed online modules individually, and collaborated remotely on group assignments as the professors experimented with new ways to adapt to the coronavirus reality.

Those classes were the hardest courses I’ve ever taken. It. Was. Rough. But there was something cathartic to the experience as well. Few things bond people like shared adversity, and having this common experience made our small cohort come together and help each other like nothing I’ve seen in law school. The work was challenging but intellectually satisfying, requiring strategic thinking, creative connections, and a willingness to admit you were wrong. Our assignments were so immersive that I barely realized that the weeks were flying by. And then that was that, and the fall semester began.

The summer was pretty good for my personal life. I’m editor-in-chief of Prometheus Dreaming, a literary journal. This year we published our first poetry anthology, based on an international poetry contest we ran. I’m still in shock. I was also fortunate enough to have a few journals accept my poems for upcoming issues, including The American Journal of Poetry, Poetry South, South 85, The Ilanot Review, and others. My poetry collection Love Letters from an Arsonist was also selected as a finalist for a competition.

I also tried to brew my own beer. 0/5 stars. That’s all I have to say about that.