Restart!

So it’s about time to give this blog a blast of fresh air into its lungs.

An administrative note: I’ve been thinking about how to differentiate various kinds of blog posts in order to make it easier for me to give updates. I haven’t decided on titles/tags yet, but the general idea will be to have an identifier for posts about what I’m learning in class, upcoming events, stuff happening in Waco, and longer-form entries about my life in general. Part of the reason I struggled to write much over the second half of the summer was because I felt like there was so much to write and I rarely made the time to sit down and get it all on paper.

Speaking of summer… what happened?

Well, the case that we picked up on the weekend of the 4th of July turned out to be a pretty big case for the rest of the summer. The case was a contract dispute between two oil and gas companies, and CRA was hired to provide an expert opinion. I researched a lot of specifics about oil and gas accounting and, on top of learning a lot, I was able to contribute a lot to the project. At the end of the summer, I got to join Loretta and John at the attorney’s office to help strategize and prepare for the arbitration. It was easy to lose sight of the context, but when I think about it, I was really fortunate to be able to contribute and have my opinions taken seriously, despite being so junior relative to everyone else in the room.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time at CRA and I’m thankful for the opportunities I had to learn from everyone in the office. One of the things that I enjoyed most was the high degree of intellectualism in everything we discussed. For example, one case required that I worked on called for us to determine the direct cost of a resource, as stated in the contract. “Direct cost” is an accounting term and has a specific definition, but in the context of a complex contract with companies providing conflicting information, it can be a difficult to argue whether something is or is not a direct cost to a panel of arbitrators and attorneys, who may not have had previous exposure to such concepts. One such discussion was whether or not the cost of capital should be considered a direct cost. We immediately decided that it wasn’t a direct cost, but we spent a long time discussing how to argue and prove that it should not be considered a direct cost. To me, this kind of discussion is fun because the answer isn’t just sitting in a textbook somewhere. You have to present arguments and be prepared to defend them in order to succeed.

My time at CRA was great, but I also really enjoyed living in Houston this summer. There was so much to do and explore around the city, but I also had a great social circle. The people that I met through The Table at FPC (my church) were great. I played basketball with a bunch of guys on Sunday afternoons, had dinner and Bible study at least once a week, and went swing dancing on Sunday nights. My last night in town, a Friday, we went to a swing dancing event at this downtown market in the wine cellar. It was almost like going to an old speakeasy. We had a great time, and I definitely feel like I will have a great community if I have the opportunity to move back to Houston after graduation.

I’m now one week into my FINAL semester at Baylor, and it’s been crazy already! I don’t remember a semester ever starting off this busy. We’ve got a case competition coming up in just another week or so, I’ve got three books to read for class (in addition to all the articles and other case readings), and I’ve got to apply for jobs. I wouldn’t have it any other way, but I’m definitely looking forward to wrapping up the semester and my degree. There’s plenty to accomplish between now and then though!

On a side note, I took some time on Saturday to watch my Michigan Wolverines win big on Saturday, though next week will be the real test against Notre Dame. Baylor doesn’t really play anyone for a while yet, but it will be fun to watch both teams aim for their respective conference championships!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *