Dustin Martinez Blog

Best Laid Plans
June 1, 2020

Best laid plans are not sober; even with meticulously plans from start to finish, these plans might still fail due to unexpected events. Needless to say, this year was full of unexpected historic moments arising from unplanned events. The United States Congress Impeached the President and tried him before the nation (the third in the history of our nation), the Australian forest fires became rampant and will scar Australia for decades to come; and not long after both of these events, COVID-19 took the world by storm as the economy and governments closed down in response to the looming threat to the vulnerable. All of these events occurred within the first few months of 2020, yet they are more prominent in my mind than those of the Fall semester of 2019 for the very reason that one event directly affected my routine as well as life across America. 

I fell into a routine before quarantine happened. I woke up, went to classes, studied, worked, ate, (maybe) checked social media and the news, and then fell asleep. It was routine, and part of the plan. Sure, there were bumps along the road, I switch jobs due to the company I had been working for cutting of hours, but it was not anything major. The plan was still to keep up on my education, study when I could, and then work when I was required to do so.  

It was routine. It was simple. There was a plan in place, and I was comfortable with it. But then something started to happen across the coasts of our nation, and I soon started to suspect my routine might come to a halt. People contracted COVID-19 and widespread panic ensued, first along the coastal states and then making its way to the inner states. I recognized it right away, as I was right there in the frontlines working at Target. People started to buy “Essential supplies” such as canned food, bottled water, disinfection wipes, toilet paper… It was absolute chaos at my work as we struggled to even restock the shelves. When you brought toilet paper to the sales floor, you would have thought that I was carrying the Ark of the Covenant instead of soft easily soaked paper rolls. That is not the only thing that had started to happen either. 

Classes went online, and campus shut its doors. At first it was gradual, it was only the dining halls and classes that had shutdown. Soon so did the Recreational Center and the Library as well. Things started to become increasingly hard to keep track of as the days melted together and it became hard to find information about online courses, as a lot of professors struggled to get the classes to an online format. No one was prepared. This blindsided and no one was ready for the transition. The world was in panic and no one knew what to do. 

Despite the odd circumstances, I was still doing things that I would have normally done. Being only “slightly extroverted” meant that the changes were not too big. I still had a job, attended classes, and worked out outside. But as I began, I remembered best laid plans are not sober. Two weeks into April, I developed a fever and, so being responsible, I decided to quarantine myself for 14 days. Although I won’t go into too much detail, I will say that it wasn’t as bad for me as it has been for other people. Still put a giant clog into a fine-tuned machine. 

I was now stuck in the house with no contact to the outside world but through the phone. I cannot run because the illness would have progressed. I obviously did not go to work out of fear of infecting others. This made my routine stagnant, and I realized that things had to change. Although you cannot choose what will happen along the routes that you take, what you can choose to do is adapt and come out for the better. So that is exactly what I set out to do. 

The goal: adapt to the new conditions that have been set before me. No going outside, keep on doing what I could, keep my mind sharp, and try to stay calm. I divided my living space into four areas. One for creative activities one for sleep, one for work, and one for eating and relaxing. The idea here was to keep each one sacred and separate from the others so that one could focus on the task at hand and hone that specific task. This helped me stay sane and organized without becoming a slob. As I could not do anything about the situation outside, I decided that I would change what I could on the inside in my area of influence and leave the situation outside for the people who could help. 

This lasted two weeks, and as I come out of self-isolation, I realized something. You never know what life will throw at you; unexpected events can change your plans in an instant no matter how well prepared you are. What matters in the end is how you end up responding and reacting to these events. If you lose your cool or decide to give up hope when things like this happen, you will end up missing an opportunity to grow as an individual. The worst of circumstances bring out the true character of the individual, and, although on one hand, these circumstances can show the worst of humanity, on the other hand you can see the most brilliant lights shine in the darkest of nights. There is no formula for success during times of panic; but if you can stay cool, do what is reasonable, and do what you can in the moment, in the end you will end up better off than you were. 

So, best laid plans are not sober; if plans end up changing, remember that it is not the end of the world, but it can be, only the start of something bigger and better for the future. 

Finding Passion, Finding Purpose
July 2, 2019

When I set out from my hometown of Pueblo, Colorado, saying goodbye to family and old friends I had known for all my life, I vowed that with the knowledge I would obtain that I would help the world to become a better place. I was set on being a lawyer. I was willing to do anything to pursue this burning passion in my soul to find the knowledge and desire to help others. I knew it, and my mother must have known it too because before she left she gave me just a little piece of advice. “Keep your head up” she told me as I hugged her one last time. At the time I did not know what she meant by that, I’m not even sure she knew, but I took it to heart nonetheless.

I didn’t get any scholarships for my schooling, so I knew that I was going have to pay for college some other way. So when I graduated high school I decided that I would move in with my Aunt, and work over the summer so when school rolled around, I had some money and an established job to support myself a little through college. My Aunt was also nice enough to let me live with her when school actually started, that way I could cut down on the cost of living on the dorms. This plan seemed like a good idea on paper, but there were a few things I didn’t account for. One being loneliness. But I remembered, I needed to keep my head up. Nothing was going to get in my way.

LYWC (Law School Yes We Can) started at the very end of the summer, and by that time I had gotten to know a lot of my coworkers at my place of work, however I failed to make any deep connection with them. At opening ceremony for LSYWC, I got to meet my mentors for the first time. My mentors Jess and John were there and I immediately grew fond of them(I met my other mentor, Justice Hood, a month later at a Waffle House. A little bit unreal since 1. You’re meeting a Justice and 2. You’re meeting a Justice over Waffles. Classes started shortly after opening ceremony, and every month after that I would have my monthly meetings with my mentors, and I learned quite a bit about each of them (of which none I’ll tell here) and quite a lot more about the law. It sparked my interest. This was stuff that I had never heard before but of which I was vastly interested in hearing.

It was a bit harder for me to make any connections at school, as I lived far away from campus, just far enough away that people who would otherwise be my friend would shy away from hanging out with me. I was either working or back home, away from campus. It wasn’t the best feeling in the world. Even when I moved into the dorms my second semester, (the oh so coveted “dorm life” I was supposedly missing my first semester) the people in the dorms had already established social groups that had no interest in reach out to me and welcoming me in. Even the RA (Resident Assistant), who was supposed to give me the rundown of dorm life and make me feel welcomed, did nothing but say hello and try to talk to me at inappropriate times in the bathroom. But I had to remember, I had to keep my head up.

At this point in time I was honestly doubting myself. I had forgotten my mission and why I had left Pueblo. But I continued to keep my head up without understanding why I did it.

Near this time we had a workshop for LSYWC, a kind of speed dating where they bring in lawyers and we ask them questions. How it’s supposed to go is that they stand around the room, and we pick a lawyer, take five minutes to know them and ask about their professions, and then move on to the next. But nothing ever goes as planned when I’m around, much less in a room of lawyers who seemed to have hijacked the entire workshop we were in. That’s when they all decide that they were going to have a panel instead, and we all can ask them questions while each one talks about their experiences.

While they were talking, each one of their stories struck a chord with me. They weren’t doing this for the money, each one of them had some sort of burning desire to help others and so decided that law was the way to do that. It wasn’t even so much so about what circumstances that they were in, they all wanted to be someone who could help and so decided to do so. This experience left a profound impact on me and helped me realized that this is what I really wanted to do. That’s when I understood keeping your head up.

I needed to keep my head up, not just for myself, but for everyone else as well, because even though I’m only one person, I represent the hope and dreams of many other people. The first year of my schooling has been a ride of emotions and had its ups and downs, and was rather lonely. But I met new people through LSYWC that inspire and help me be the person I desire to be. I think that’s priceless to have. I’m looking forward to what the future might hold.

“Sí, Se Puede” is a phrase born of farmworkers, who, under the leadership of the UFW, César Chávez, and Dolores Huerta, fought valiantly for equal protection under the law. As a result of the efforts of the UFW, “Sí, Se Puede” has become well known as a call that engenders hope and inspiration in those who face similar battles. We thank the UFW, whom we acknowledge to be the sole and exclusive owner of the Trademark SI SE PUEDE, for granting us a limited license to use“Sí, Se Puede” in connection with our efforts to recruit, in Colorado, students of Hispanic or Latino descent for our law school pipeline program. For more information about the programs offered by the UFW, please see UFW’s webpage (www.ufw.org); UFW Foundation’s webpage (www.ufwfoundation.org); and UFWF’s immigration services webpage (www.sisepuede.org)