Week 5: Deadlines Galore!
I keep waiting for a week that goes by relatively slow or for the amount of projects I get to work on to plateau, but I have a feeling that is not going to happen this summer. This week went by so fast because I had several projects going on- all with similar deadlines. At times, it was definitely stressful trying to balance everything. "To Do Lists" were my best friend. The biggest project I had this week was finishing up the final report for the Caribbean Team. I have mentioned the various reports I have written as part of this final report in previous blogs, such as the Digital Recording Program implemented in The Bahamas or the Human Trafficking Workshop implemented in Jamaica. The entire project was called the Justice Sector Assistance Program, and it was a five year project composed of various subprojects throughout the Caribbean. Over these past five weeks, I had been writing these "mini" reports on different subprojects. This week, however, I edited and reformatted previous reports. At first, I thought this would not take very long because it was just checking over someone else's work. However, I quickly realized it can be pretty difficult trying to piece together someone else's thought process. I spent days combing through files of reports and assessments to make sure all of the details of the previously written reports were accurate. I researched and wrote on judicial writing workshops that were conducted in Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago and a civil asset recovery program that was conducted in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Overall, it was a great experience to be part of writing all of these reports from my very first day at NCSC until the very last second when the report was due to the State Department.
While rushing to fix and correct these reports before the deadline, I also had another project going on with a similar strict deadline. When I wasn't writing reports for the Caribbean Team, I was researching judicial research centers in South Africa, Peru, and Missouri. In a week or so, the Pakistan Supreme Court is coming to NCSC to listen to a presentation on different judicial research centers as they are trying to develop their own legal research center. Finding enough research has been quite difficult- most of the information we needed was not published on websites. I've examined numerous primary and secondary sources in trying to write my first draft that was due on Wednesday of this week. Balancing this with the Caribbean project was challenging at times, but it definitely gave me the necessary experience in handling several deadlines at once. I made it through the week in one piece, and I managed to meet all of my deadlines. Overall, I am grateful for the amount of experience I am getting at NCSC this summer. I have really honed not only my research and writing skills, but have learned to balance several projects at once. All of these skills will be valuable as a lawyer, regardless of which practice area I go into one day.
I am not sure what next week holds, although I do have several contracting assignments that have been put on hold while I met the deadlines for these two projects. I guess I'll have to dust off those files I stowed away over a week ago and get back into the grind of analyzing and editing contracts! Until next week:)