PARALEGAL ALIEN

Since being back in The City, the güero has had to chart a new course in life. I've tried being all the things I wanted to be since I was a güerito but none panned out for one reason or another. I attempted to make a new life in LA but after missing the exit and making a few detours, I ended up taking the midnight u-haul back up to San Francisco.

So what does one do when they're falling on forty years of age and have absolutely zero prospects? One goes back to school of course, and that's just what I have done: I've decided that perhaps developing a marketable skill is probably a prudent move. After a little desktop research, the paralegal field had an appeal to me for various reasons: I like doing research, I enjoy writing and this nation's laws have always interested me. So what the hell...let's give it a go. At this point my interest is in immigration law. I want to have a career that produces some sort of social benefit, as well as an income. Assisting folks to reside here legally, in this great nation, in order to make a better life, to me, is an o.k. thing to do. Let's face it: I need all the good karma I can get. My last gig was selling lead painted trinkets made by Chinese laborers probably for some paltry wage. Or who knows, maybe I'll just end up working at some dodgy personal injury firm that handles slip and trip cases all day long. Who knows?

So here I am back right were I started at CCSF, the junior college that I started attending some 20-odd years ago. It's so surreal to be back. Walking through the campus, brings back a myriad of memories and it's almost as if it's 1990 again, like the last 18 years never happened. Sure there are some new buildings but it still feels and smells the same. This, of course, is an illusion that's disturbingly shattered whenever I walk into a campus restroom and happen upon a mirror. I don't see that skinny awkward kid anymore; instead it's a rather frightening, but still awkward, middle-aged man. I've gained weight, gone gray and lost most of my hair and my nerve: a stranger in a strangely familiar land.

But so far so good, I like my classes and I'm impressed with the City College Paralegal Department thus far. The instructors are friendly and knowledgeable and my fellow students have been great. I'm feeling pretty good about this, though I still choose to remain cautiously optimistic...