-: My first plane ride
was when I came up to Syracuse for law school.
I'd been out of Mississippi a few times but not very far
and obviously it was always by car,
so it was my first plane ride,
it was my first exposure to the North East.
In Mississippi so many things were in black and white
including racial issues,
it was just black and white in Mississippi particularly,
and so, it was my first real exposure
to people from different ethnic groups,
it was my first exposure to an accent
that was different from a Southern or a Midwestern accent.
I thought, my first few days here,
I thought everyone was from another country
and there were just a lot of New York accents.
So, all of that, I mean, just being in a different region
of the country and then being in a place like Syracuse
which in a lot of ways was kind of like
where I'd come from.
There aren't any cities in Mississippi.
It's just a big rural state
and so, being in an environment like Syracuse
where it really wasn't a big city
was probably good for me
and then the law school
was one where I had a lot of professors
who I think were passionate about their work
and what they were doing.
They cared about, for the most part I think,
they cared about your success,
in other words, your being able to get through
the law school experience
and to graduate and that mattered.