the karmic wheel of bfc

it was a year ago that I attended my ACO (All Clinic Orientation) where I learned about the clinic and put my name on a clipboard to be a prospective volunteer. last night I coordinated the first ACO of the year, which means I was responsible for recruiting the speakers from each of the sections, setting up the room, greeting the fresh-faced Berkeley undergrads as they filed into the commons at the bfc (the big room at thre back of the clinic with beat up old couches and chairs and a blackboard with multi-colored chalk). So I got to speak knowledgably about the clinic and my section, answered a few questions, introduced the speakers. It was weird, mainly because it was exactly a year ago thst I was in one of those chairs. The clinic seemed intense and cool at the time, and now it seems just desperate and quirky. Also yesterday, one of the old-timers at the clinic, one of the "oligarchs" as we call them, came up to me and said, "you've been working a lot, Dana, I think you should have your own clinic key." Yeah, I know it's dopey, but it really made me feel a fuzzy warm sense of belonging.