Justice Consuelo Marie Callahan, Circuit Judge, United States Courts of Appeal [10:08-15:13]

I was thinking about it I don't remember a lot before I was five but the the memories that I start to have I do remember when my brother was born and playing in the driveway I also remember and this is sort of a funny little story about me my mother and I having we checked with the next door neighbor when I was going to kindergarten to find out whether girls took purses to school in kindergarten which looking back it's really fairly hilarious but I think that my mom you know I think my parents were really wanted us to be prepared for whatever came in life and my mom maybe not having that and feeling somewhat maybe be you know not you know a simulation was a little more difficult in her situation wanting me to feel perfectly comfortable going to kindergarten but you know we had you know we lived in a neighborhood where kids you you know you could play out in the street you you know we went I remember riding my bike to school probably from around second grade you know crossing you know busy streets we would come home we got we played in the afternoon then after dinner was time to do your homework and my mother was probably if nothing else we probably could have helped her a little more but it was very our job was to be a good student and get our work done so you know immediately we didn't even have to watch we didn't have to watch dishes we had to go do our homework after dinner I think we probably could have done both but we kind of milk that for what it was and so it it was a pretty you know it was calmer in those days in the sense I mean my mom was always there when we came home kids didn't have a million activities like they do now it was more plane being a kid and and I probably and for us it was doing our homework and that type of thing and and I did take you know I my my parents were very I took piano that was sort of a mandatory in our family I took some dance and so you had to there were things along those lines I was a girl scout and so I suppose it was the I did have activities I always I did have activities I had a lot of friends and I really remember being pretty pretty happy not worried pretty fulfilled and when you were growing up then was it too young for yet to have a mentor or role model does that come later in your life well you know I suppose my parents and my family were really important in who I look to for those things I was is interesting because I was a little bit of looking back I was not a shy child and people always find it because I'm not a shy person so that always not I was not a shy child but I was a sensitive child and people have tended to look at me later as being fearless I like to perform you know I was a trial lawyer and I I'm I'm really an extrovert but I was really kind of a sensitive child when I was young and new things did not come easily to me that my mom had to send me you know I would kind of come running inside the house set someone hurt my feelings and I she'd have to send me back out to defend myself or these are funny things I I read to a first grade class a couple of weeks ago and read across America and I was telling them how some of my fears when I was in school I remember being afraid going from first to I think it was first to second grade when we went from tables to desks I mean from desks to tape to to your desk from tables to desks because that was it like a change well what happens when you sit in a desk and then I had a fear of substitute teachers I didn't like them because that was I think I was I liked routine I liked predictability and I I think I've overcome a lot of that in terms of there's still probably that strain in me but I know I don't give into it if I want to do something I almost certainly I would say your career had your your professional career has been anything but routine or anything but predictable so well I think it was those early sessions of my mother sending me back out to defend myself in that you know she was a big well just tell them how you feel you know that I I don't know you know sometimes that I exercise my first amendment maybe people could have done without hearing from me sounds like your adversary served you well early on tell me about high school and those formative years it sounds like you moved to another city and you started a fresh well it's funny I think close as you sort of started out will are sort of a theme in defining moments I remember I don't remember a lot about when I went to second seventh grade we moved very quickly before school started I had no friends I didn't know a soul I remember to this day what I wore that day you know I had this sort of royal blue pleated skirt on this top that had these three little white pom-poms on it and and I remember it was a defining moment