About Me: June, 2004
My name is Greg Sampson. I live in Central Vermont, in a small town called Bethel. I am unsure of the town’s population, but more people live here than in Topsham, which is the town of my last residence. I’ve been living in Vermont for over two years now. Most of that time I have lived with my girlfriend, Jessamyn, though there was that one Winter (of 2002–2003) in which she moved back to Seattle and I stayed here. I found that experience sort of fun, but I was ready for Jessamyn to come back come Spring. We’ve been living together ever since. We have a loving relationship, and it continues to make me happy.
Oh, and one other thing about my living situation: in the time I’ve lived on the East Coast, I’ve moved more times than I ever did before in my life. It’s been something like four moves in two years. I think that says something both about my life here and about my life back in the Midwest.
I’m a law student at Vermont Law School. I just finished my first year about two weeks ago. Right now I’m in that in between time, in which I feel relieved about being done with classes and finals, but a little stressed about my grades (they should be coming in the mail by July 1st). Mostly I can handle the stress, but every once in a while I’ll have a minor freak–out in which convince myself that I have failed. But as I progress through school I find those moments of panic fewer and less intense. I don’t imagine they’ll every go away entirely — I think they’re simply a part of the life I chose for myself. I’m OK with that, because ultimately I love the work I do.
I’m not exactly sure what I want to do with my law degree. I know I want to practice law in some capacity. I especially like the process of appellate advocacy and — weirdly enough — the writing work that goes into arguing cases on appeal. On the substantive end of things, I find technology and intellectual property law interesting, as well as civil rights advocacy. Once I graduate from law school, I think my dream job would be to work as a law clerk somewhere in Vermont or New Hampshire.
Before starting law school I worked in the technology industry for about four years. In January, 2002 I was laid off from my web job in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which preciptated my moving to the East Coast. I don’t even remotely regret my choice to move out here. As I told someone the other day, after visiting Vermont for the second time (back in 2000), I decided I would be happier living here and visiting the Midwest from time to time.
Before starting my semilucrative, albeit short–lived technology career, I went to college in Iowa called Coe College. Coe is a small, liberal arts school, and my experience there was about the same as anyone else’s who went to a similar institution anywhere else in the country. I was happy to have gone there, though, and even though I might talk smack about it from time to time, I hang on to the corny belief that my experience there helped me become the person I am today.
To finally trace this all back to the beginning: I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to a liberal and politically involved family. My father works in child welfare and my mom works for the Presbyterian Church. Both of my parents are very active in the Presbyterian Church. It is an important part of their spiritual and social lives. I also have one younger sister, who is a Physics PhD student at Cornell. I make no arguments over which one of us was endowed with the real brains.
And that’s pretty much all of it. If you want to learn about what I used to think about myself, you can check out these older About Me pages:
