People take different paths through law school.
Some hole themselves up in a dorm room or apartment, cramming every piece of knowledge throughout all hours of the day.
Others work, have a family or tend to other obligations that can pull them away from their studies.
Yet the ones who make it, who march across the stage clad in caps and gowns, have stories to regale.
Aaron Conti made it.
The 29-year-old Florida Coastal School of Law grad knows about juggling obligations in the pursuit of his legal education.
It’s a path that’s included a monthly weekend visit back to Massachusetts to train troops in the 181st Infantry Regiment and pulling after-hours study sessions at Dunkin’ Donuts and other places open all night with reliable Wi-Fi.
Another one or two weekends each month was spent near Fort Gordon, just west of Augusta, Ga. It’s where his wife, Caitlin, has a periodontal residency with the Army. He’s made the more than four-hour car trip many a time.
Law school, the military, a long-distance marriage. How’d he manage?
“Red Bull,” said Conti with a laugh on Friday.
The Michigan native actually started at Suffolk Law School in Boston in 2010. He joined the Massachusetts National Guard a year later and has worked his way up be a scout platoon leader.
When Caitlin took the residency at Fort Gordon, Conti’s law school search matched him with Florida Coastal.
He remembers looking for his first apartment while training in the woods near Cape Cod.
While at Florida Coastal, he was heavily involved in the school’s Military Law Society and helped organize several veterans’ gravesite cleanups.
More obligations, but ones he didn’t mind.
“It’s been a special place,” he said, a day before he walked across the stage Saturday at Veterans Memorial Arena to receive his law degree.
His cheering section included his parents, Nick and Vergie, his wife, aunt, uncle, in-laws, brother-in-law — the whole crew it seemed, except his sisters.
The day was one that was somewhat unexpected, given Conti’s argumentative and sometimes brash demeanor growing up.
“I still can’t believe it … I just think Aaron was Aaron,” said Vergie Conti before letting out a good-natured laugh.
She remembers hugging her husband when Conti graduated high school, telling him they had “made it.”
Conti was a thoughtful and sensitive kid with leadership qualities growing up, his parents said. Always a gifted athlete, he backed up NFL cornerback Brandon Carr while at Grand Valley State University.
But before that, his talents led to an inflated ego — enough that his father wouldn’t let him go to the public high school where he once taught and coached basketball. He would have been the best athlete, but he also wouldn’t have opened a book, said Nick Conti.
So Aaron Conti picked University of Detroit Jesuit High School, an all-boys school notorious for tough academics. There would be no slacking, no inflated ego.
He stuck with it and started thinking about a career in law enforcement, like the FBI.
His first week at Grand Valley State reinforced the idea. It was when his older brother, Anthony, died after battling mental health and drug issues. All four Conti children were separately adopted.
Aaron and Anthony were close and quite the handful growing up, Vergie Conti said.
The loss of Anthony was hard for everyone.
“I wanted to affect change on a higher scale,” said Aaron Conti. “It definitely steered me.”
It steered him toward the military and law, two careers that will mold into one when Conti becomes part of the 202nd U.S. Judge Advocate General’s Corps in January.
First, though, comes The Florida Bar exam in July. He starts a prep course Wednesday.
Not much time to rest on one’s laurels, but he did have a respite Saturday evening.
The graduation ceremony, he said, was more about saying thanks to family and friends for supporting him along the way.
His parents returned the favor, surprising him with a celebration at Moxie Kitchen + Cocktails once the ceremony was over. It was an event in honor of Conti’s sacrifice and efforts, thus far.
“It hasn’t been a waltz in the park,” said Nick Conti on Friday, before a slight pause and a smile. “They may not let people with the last name Conti into Jacksonville for a while … we’re going to celebrate.”
All across Jacksonville over the weekend, there were celebrations in honor of graduates like Conti.
Like the path it took to get there, they all likely were a little different from the next.
@writerchapman
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