Week 3
Every new opportunity is exciting at first; even the ones that eventually stagnate into dullness. It is not until the novelty wears off and you begin to establish a routine that you can finally judge whether you are finding an experience to be truly fulfilling. After my third week at the NCSC, I have reached that point: I know exactly what time I need to wake up in the morning to get to the office early; I have memorized the drive to and from the office and no longer use directions; and I know when during the day I like to make myself a cup of tea (black in the morning and herbal in the afternoon). But most importantly, I know that within this routine is the extraordinary.
Whether it is helping to create a moot court team in Tunisia, researching the impacts on judicial outcomes of appellate court structure in the United States, or any other project, I know that each day is going to be one where I perform work that teaches me something new, gives me the opportunity to work with sharp and dedicated people around the world, or inspires me to approach an assignment in a new and unexpected way.
As an example, last week I was assigned the task of researching the Mongolian judicial transparency. Unlike in other countries, the studies on the subject published to the Mongolian government’s websites were only available in Mongolian; therefore, these studies did not appear in search results when using English search terms. I realized that I was making very limited progress in my research just using English searches and decided to change my approach. To succeed, I needed to first translate the search terms (“judicial transparency,” “Mongolia,” etc.) into Mongolian, then copy and paste that translation into the search engine. After going to the pages with matching key terms, I could then translate the pages into English, download the correct PDFs, then use an online translator to fully translate the PDFs into English. I have never had to do anything like this before, and it was like solving a puzzle when I figured out what to do.
After three weeks, I feel settled into the routine of work at the NCSC. After three weeks, I don’t think this sense of fulfillment is going anywhere.