My Love Letter to O'Melveny & Myers

Today, I had my going away (for now), pre-surgery, bon voyage send-off at O'Melveny. I had been looking forward to this day and also not looking forward to it for a while. Looking forward to it, obviously, because I love my colleagues and my OMM family and enjoy partying with them more than most people on Earth. Not looking forward to it because it meant that I was about to leave on my journey east and I wouldn't be able to see all of them for a month, which seems like way too long for me to be away from the firm.

I knew it would be a great party, and that I'd get to see all of my buddies, but had no idea that it would be such a huge gathering with such a wonderful surprise.

The surprise, dear readers, was that my mentor and the managing partner of the L.A. office, Carla, planned that today would be a "Jeans for Charity" day. That meant that attorneys and staff could wear jeans to the office today (jeans are not proper attire for a normal Wednesday at the firm) if they contributed $5 to the chosen charity. The charity for this “Jeans for Charity” day  -- the Colorectal Cancer Coalition, a nonprofit organization dedicated to winning the fight against colorectal cancer through research, empowerment, and access -- was chosen in my honor. Dr. Lenz is on the Medical Advisory Board of the C3 Coalition, so he'll be happy to know that O'Melveny raised nearly $5,000 for the organization in honor of little old WunderGlo and her big old bon voyage party.

If that wasn't enough to make me love my firm endlessly, the Firm bought 250 WunderGlo shirts (designed by my dad's good friend and an awesome dude, Derek, who had made the first printing of them a couple of months ago) that were distributed to everyone who wanted one. They sold out immediately, and now I hear they are being marked up considerably on the O'Melveny black market. :)

I walked in to the conference room on the 13th floor (the location of my shindig) at 3pm, and was blown away by all the people who greeted me. Attorneys and staff from every department, all wearing WunderGlo shirts, all there to wish me well in the next chapter of my cancer-killing adventure. I had to fight back tears many times throughout the day because I was so moved by how loving and kind everyone was to me. If you think I'm inspiring, spend a day at O'Melveny.

It's one thing to be confident in your abilities to beat back cancer. It's wonderful when you have an incredibly supportive family and fabulous friends who also believe in you. But when you've got that AND you feel that your colleagues are part of your family, and know that they believe in you, too, you are living the dream.

Today reminded me in a big way how lucky I am. I’m truly blessed to have so many incredible people in my life, and despite “the cancer,” I really am living the dream.

To my O'Melveny family: thank you so much for everything, today and always. I miss you already, but I'm taking you with me in my heart on my road trip, to the operating room, to the ICU, and until I'm reunited with you again next month. I love you guys! Kick butt while I'm gone, and prepare for a monster party when I'm back in L.A.

Cancer doesn't stand a chance when I've got a support system this strong and so much love in my heart. Today was a beautiful day, and I'll never forget it.