I was a trial lawyer for 20 years,
and came to the realization that wasn't enough,
and that I wanted to teach.
Teaching is like getting paid to learn.
It is a inevitable, continuing education.
And that's the beauty and the magic of teaching.
The name of the class is commercial law.
We do contract law, torts.
I teach it so that it opens up your eyes
to what the law really is.
It's never stagnant.
We're always learning.
They're always changing.
This class that I'm teaching, I had
when I was a second year here, and I
had John Wheeler, who taught it for 35 some years before me.
He was really a great teacher, but also a good mentor.
At that point, professors really weren't that accessible,
and I swore that I would make an effort to be here for them,
to answer their questions.
I don't have office hours.
I literally leave the door open, so they know I'm around,
and they can come in anytime.
I love getting to know the students,
and UVA has a wonderful program, where
they provide the access to take students to lunch.
The idea being, obviously, what Jefferson
had wanted, which is that we encounter each other outside
of the classroom.
At the end of every semester, I do
what's called a last lecture.
I know that they've listened to law now for a semester.
They probably remember maybe a fourth of it, if that.
But I want them to remember this one thing,
that their life is about their control of their attitude.
I tell them, we spend a lot of times worrying
about these things that you can't control,
and the things that are really going
to take you down to your knees.
And I share with them the story of losing my first husband
when I was 30, and a mother four months later.
What should have been my first year wedding
anniversary, the very day.
And I tell them that there certainly
was a period where I didn't want to be positive.
I didn't even want to be here.
But little by little, I had to put my life back together,
starting to fill it up with just things that mattered.
I tell them, your attitude is like a muscle.
You constantly have to exercise it to keep strong.
You have to work at being happy, because life
will take you on detours you never dreamed of.
Life's precious, and if you don't live every day
and enjoy what you can each day, what have you done?