Previously Unpublished

Lately I have been really into making strange analogies between things that are very unrelated, but that share some descriptive point in common, sort of like how old films used to montage things like a screen shot of workers entering a factory with a subsequent shot of sheep being herded into a corral. For example, I noted a friend of mine’s reference to her relative indifference to Seinfeld as similar to my feelings on potato chips: if it’s on/there, then fine, I’ll watch/eat. See what I mean: sort of weird juxtaposition.

With that in mind though, I thought of a uniquely blawg-esque Memorial Day post that sort of acts as a memorial while also using the job theme that has been a contant in the past couple of weeks on this blog as I search for a current summer position while talking about/critiquing interviews and job searches of mine from the past couple of years since I entered law school. Basically, and hopefully without taking anything at all away from the true spirit of the holiday and the ultimate sacrifices that are made by our men and women in the armed forces, I am going to memorialize past jobs that I had and briefly explain how they fell to the wayside as I pursued my ultimate goal of practicing law. So, with my intro out of the way, here are five jobs/career paths that I considered before law that ultimately became a casualty of other opportunities in my life leading to me being a law student today (I guess the value in the blogosphere would be to show one person’s path to deciding to go law school):

1. Structural/Materials Engineering (1989-1996): This was my first true career pursuit, mainly highlighted by how long in my life I persisted in telling people that’s what I wanted to do (my first goal ever was to be the first man to set foot on Mars or failing that, a professional baseball player.) In middle school and early high school I basically became fascinated with the idea of building flying cars and I was really good at science and asking questions to get answers. My sophomore year of high school I got my first C’s ever in Advanced Algebra/Trig while simultaneously and seemingly effortlessly doing very well in honors English (Not to brag really, it was high school, without the bell curve, everyone got A’s and B’s usually.) Thus ended my pursuit of science and a degree from CalTech or M.I.T. Clearly, if I could do better in writing without even trying, then engineering would suffer a fatal wound inflicted by sloth.

2. Military Officer/Mayor/U.S. Senator (1996-1998): In high school, I spent a lot of time building cities in SimCity; It’s nearly all I would do in my free time. Moreover, I had just gotten my Eagle Scout and was also having to think of how I would pay for college and somehow these things all coalesced into a plan for public service. Engineering out the window, but with the military coming to our high school campus daily led me to dream up a career path that would start with either the Air Force Academy or Annapolis or maybe ROTC and then end up as the youngest mayor of my hometown, followed by a run for the Senate later in life. Plus my high school girlfriend’s dad was this huge Army vet who really did show me his guns so I probably wanted to prove I could kick ass too. I got over that when ROTC turned me down when I wanted to be a business major and I couldn’t be an aviator because my vision was piss poor (see: baseball career also ending when a ball hit me in the face in 6th grade.) So this career died due to changed ambition.

3. Film Director (1998-1999): It turns out I didn’t put as much thought as I should have into picking a college and really just got lucky I got into a good school. As I said above, I now wanted to be a business major, but didn’t even understand that the school I had choosen only did economics, and that was not the same as a business degree. So I became a communications major justifiying that I would take a different approach to being an industrial titan through marketing. I started taking a lot of media workshops and was soon directing little documentaries. They sucked, but I can say that we covered steroids in amateur athletes a full five years before baseball’s unfortunate day of testimony in front of Congress. Anyway, in the end, the film industry to me seemed to be more luck than anything else and I was tired of being in the “easy” major on campus so I switched to poli sci. I then took a class called the Supreme Court and the Constitution and that changed everything and in a flash, took out my flimsy film career aspirations.

4. International Law (1999-2002): Surprised to see this one listed as a casualty? Well, I had law in my head and a very influential study abroad program certainly added to my intrigue, but I did not leave undergrad thoroughly convinced I wanted to be a lawyer. Even an internship in Washinton only confused me and made me revisit several earlier career paths including even engineering (I wanted to go back and prove I could hack math if I set my mind to it.) At this point, I sort of had this notion that I had all the skills to go to law school if I wanted to and I liked the idea of working internationally and nothing else stood out as a better opportunity, but I really didn’t know what being a lawyer entailed and I was skeptical. So I only half-heartedly took the LSAT, got letters from professors I didn’t know, and stumbled through the applications the week before they were due, and not surprisingly, got turned down. Death due to committment issues.

5. Banking/Writing/Architecture (2002-2004): The three horsemen of my time in the wasteland. Armed with a poli sci degree, there was not much for me to do other than find work in some general job and I had also returned to live with my parents in a city with even fewer opportunities so rather than being a security guard at a country club or entry level manager at some retail outlet, I thought working at a bank was a good opportunity. Well, there was a lot I liked about banking, but it was clear in a small bank I was not going to advance very fast. I was sort of treading water and imagined everything else I could do or might be more interested in doing if I didn’t go to law school. Writing seemed like a better simultaneous pursuit and architecture would require me to basically start over again in school. Thus while I might resurrect banking through debtor/creditor law, rehab writing in my spare time (see Book Project entries in the Categories column to the right), and architecture was just too far out of the realm of possibility, law proved the best opportunity for me on all counts. I don’t regret it.

Thus, as I search for a job to fortify my experience in my choosen profession, on this Memorial Day along with our brave fighting forces, I’ll also recognize the steps in my development that led me on my way towards becoming a lawyer today. In that strange analogy way I was referring to above, earlier experiences sacrificed themselves in my life, just as they do for everyone, and I think that’s an interesting concept to memorialize.

-jd

Thank you soliders, sailors, and airmen who have given your lives so that I can choose to study law and write meandering posts on a blog on a day designated in your honor. I may not always agree with the wars that have brought about your sacrifices, but that will never diminish the fact that the sacrifice was made in the first place without question.

Continued from Be Cool Employer, Be Cool Pt. II:

Well, finally, we get to the point where I get to ask questions. Here is where I got a little crazy. They seemed like a very cool, hip firm to work for with young guys and girls manning the battle stations. However, they also seemed like they did an aweful lot of work. Now, funnily enough, I am not worried about that over the summer. I am locked in and would do anything to get experience. I really liked the way they did things and would have been fine working there. However, I sort of wanted to know if this turned into a long term thing, if this was one of those 80 hour a week, crazy billing hours types of places. Because that’s the vibe I got and frankly, I’m not sure I want that in the long run. (Yes, I know I could just get the job and see how it goes, or else really it just didn’t matter at that point.) However, I was given a clue without having to directly ask when one guy mentions he was going home that night to see his wife for their anniversary. So somehow, I decide to make a Conan ‘O Brien type impersonation (be cool my babies, be cool) and sort of take to myself with this mock voice where I say something like, “thank god you guys don’t work so hard that you can’t go home to your wives, because you seem really busy.”

I don’t know, I didn’t really get a reaction. I just know that the interview was basically over at that point so we all shook hands and they said they’d get back to me by the end of the week. It was really on my way home that I imagined how I must have looked doing that little funny voice where I basically exhibited my internal monologue and demonstrated that I might not be the team player they were looking for. So I was kind of hard on myself. I’ve found sometimes I do that during dates too, mainly when I’m nervous and say something but am not sure how it will go over and so I downplay it. I was reassured after the interview that I still come off as nice in those latter situations, but anyway, it just didn’t seem to befit a professional setting. Thus that little play, along with being stubborn on the scheduling (in my head), and being late (whether they knew it or not, because I wasn’t totally collected and focused like I normally try to be) made this probably my most uncool interview since I started law school.

Well, there was also the much shorter interview where my grades were called to task, but I’ll get to that story a little later. I didn’t really care about the firm as much in that one, so perhaps that is why this is the story I wanted to label as the one where I wish the employers would “be cool” about my indiscretions just like Conan tells his audience to be. Anyway, like I said in yesterday’s post, I’m trying to mix up when all these happened and change the situations a little so they remain as anonymous as possible. Obviously, I fault myself on this particular interview, so I would never want the chance of a firm taking this the wrong way. Maybe it can just help serve as a reminder of what I think did or did not work in an interview setting. Heck, for all I know, they just really couldn’t work out only having me 10 hours in the fall. I’ll be positive, they were a pretty cool firm.

Epilogue: I didn’t get the job. (At least they called and didn’t leave me hanging.)

-jd

Continued from Be Cool Employer, Be Cool Pt. I:

So the lawyer comes in and it pleasant enough. He seems really geared towards selling his firm as sort of the anti-big law experience. It almost feels as though he is trying to sell me on working at his firm. For some reason I don’t feel a lot of sensation in my face that I can control to contort into a smile that would signal I like what I hear. I don’t know why my face won’t work so when I do try to acknowledge, it comes out as a sort of laugh, followed by, “oh course,” or “definately.” I sound like a tool. By the time he is done, I’m more sold on the firm than when I read about it on the website. I really like what they are doing and how they are doing it. Damn you expectation! It covers all the fields I’m interested in, it sounds like I’d be doing exactly what one of my friends does now as an associate, and I’d be making almost twice as much money as I’ve ever made doing anything. Then they want to know about my schedule.

I don’t think I explained this very well. I already knew back then that I would be taking summer school (this has also been a problem in later/more recent interviews since some firms really want someone who will be there full time.) I am taking it because I need the financial aid to pay for my apartment because most places I have interviewed at would not be quite enough to cover everything. Plus, summer school means that I can be a part-time student all year next year which also saves money. The thing that I didn’t consider was that at this job (and a couple later jobs) I would make more than enough money for everything just by working full time. It would make up for going to school full time one semester next year too. I instead develop a line about wanting to be part-time so I can accommodate a firm that might want me to work during the year.

Speaking of during the school year, I also already have a committment to work as a government intern in the fall. This will take up a lot of time even though I’ll only be a part time student. (I didn’t even mention that I would also be editing the school paper.) I feel I could still pull in about 10-12 hours at a firm if I give up my trial class and take a third class at night. For the right job, I’d be willing to do this and instead take the trial class in the spring. For the right job, I’d go out of my way to fit their needs. Somehow, I’m not getting this across to the interviewers. There are now 3 of them. One guy sort of tips his hat by saying he is very impressed with my government position (it is a sweet position), but that in future interviews I might just want to play it by ear and find a better way to present it to potential employers (so I will need to have future interviews because I’m not getting this job.)

Okay, well so I’ve been impressed that they were interested in my schedule. They took meticulous notes so I thought despite everything, they were pretty interested in me on paper at least. In fact, the interview totalled more than an hour which is probably my best time yet, even including this summer’s interviews and the government one that I actually got the offer on. We also went over my schedule and they weren’t too concerned about my grades, although the fact that they mentioned they were not concerned about my grades signals to me that they certainly noticed they weren’t pushing at the top of the class. I have a solid selection though and they took note of it.

-jd

Please see: Be Cool Employer, Be Cool Pt. III.

Editor’s Note: I broke this post in three since it was just getting too damn unwieldy.

In the last year, I’ve also had an interview that was far from perfect (as opposed to the prior post.) It started out badly enough in that I was running late, which for a law job would mean I was not going to be there 10 minutes ahead of time. More like I was going to be five minutes past the time I was supposed to be in a chair in a conference room being grilled by 1-2 lawyers in the firm. About half way there, I realized my mistake and was wringing my hands at every light as I prayed for it to change. At the time I was supposed to be 10 stories up a building I could see in the distance, I was basically still in the distance. Being late for a law interview is just not done. It seems like it should be the kiss of death and some positions I’ve interviewed for in the last year have had the hiring attorneys already in the room to take me when I’ve been early. I have never had the impression that it’s like a doctor’s office where being a little late usually goes unnoticed.

Well, I got lucky, but was probably a little frazzled walking in. I called the secretary 5 minutes till the time of the interview and said I wanted to double check the building I was supposed to be in since it sat in an office complex with a couple high rises. I peeled around the corner and found a spot open exactly in front of the entrance. So lucky. I threw my jacket on and raced to the elevator and then tried to gain composure as I ascended. Breath mint in mouth. Try to straighten my hair, make sure the tags are all tucked in. Shit, there are blood stains on my white shirt from shaving. Well, nothing I can do about that now. Okay, remember the names of the lawyers I’ll be speaking to. Remember the names. Remember the names. Go time!

I walk in and as soon as I catch eyes with the secretary, I can see that she finds me interesting. I am interested in her ushering me to a chair with as little fanfare as possible. I’m 4 minutes late according to the clock behind her. I give her my best smile and say that I think I’m right on time for my interview after thankfully getting the right building thanks to her advice. She smiles and says, “Oh, that was you on the phone.” I wink at her. I sort of want to be sick, but hey - girls seem to use this all the time and I really don’t want to screw up this job. Hell, for all I know, she’ll make a note of how late I was to the partner as soon as I’m gone. But if anything, I’ll just take her attention as a small confidence boost since I’m clearly not Brad Pitt, she was probably just being friendly, and well I’m not the type to just casually be into some random girl working in some law firm anyway as nice as she might turn out to be.

Well, anyway, no one seems to notice once I’m in the conference room that I was late or anything. The secretary goes to sit down across from the glass door to the room and then gets up two minutes later and goes into an office and I can hear her muffled voice say that the 3 o’clock appointment has been waiting for him. Thank you random girl who I was just trying to charm so you’d help me out and you did, but who I would not date because I like to get to know people before asking them out and furthermore the only way I’d get to know you is if we worked together and then I would not be interested because we worked together.

-jd

Please see: Be Cool Employer, Be Cool Pt. II.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The posts concerning my quest to secure employment will not all come in real time and may include some liberties in order to make them as anonymous as possible given the sensative nature of discussing the firms I may one day work for. In fact, this is likely to be all anyone will ever hear from me concerning work. However, I think it’s important to document this very crucial aspect of the gaining a foothold in the legal profession. Moreover, any stories of compromise will likely feature my mishaps as the village idiot who couldn’t make it through a professional interview without goofing something up, so here goes (this first one is obviously from the a point last year when I was still in school and I just saved it as a draft back then, but it fits perfectly in this new category, now):

I did not really study today. Well, I’m sort of studying now. I also feel as if I just took a final today in the form of a job interview for a firm that would be perfect. And when I say perfect, I mean I have not seen a better job for me in the field of law ever. (Disclaimer so I won’t be crushed when I get rejected, see below: I haven’t been seriously looking for more than a month either.)

So I finished my last classes this morning and got all dolled up for the interview (I do clean up nicely, thanks to the pretty girls who noticed and said so today.) It was downtown, so I took off a little early to make sure I could get parking and brought a commcerial outline with me just in case I had some extra time. Well, had the interview and I thought it went quite well. It lasted a decent amount of time, there was no fixation on my grades, I think I kept from doing weird stuff with my eyebrows while the interviewer was talking, etc. I thought the job was great. I walked out feeling like I did when I thought I aced International Law (This should have been the first warning sign.)

Then, with that feeling of somehow having completed a final while simultaneously not having studied for anything at all, I drove down the scenic highway with the windows down and Gwen Stefani singing away (Old No Doubt, not new L.A.M.E. stuff.) I bought expensive chinese food and called home basically to brag. I am so stoked about the interview and the prospect of working in this great office that I get the notion to write a thank you letter and mail it before 5 so that the interviewer will get it before she makes her decision over the weekend. Usually I think you mainly do this for big firm call-backs, but why not right? It can’t hurt and I think she was the type of person who would appreciate the touch.

Plus I would really like this job. Everything I have done this year and complained about would be worth it and then some to get this job. Did I mention I would like to have this job? (With all due knocking on wood and disclaimers that I probably won’t get the job. In fact, I’ll even drop that I have a promising girl prospect just because mentioning dates before they become serious is my usual jinx and so I am using that jinx to cancel out any jinx that might be incurred by telling this story.) I think it’s a good story to remember and document. I’m not superstitious at all (No wonder I like baseball - touch first base everytime you walk on or off the field, grab your crotch, and then touch your right temple, side of your nose, and soul-patch area.)

I write the letter. I spend half an hour drafting it. Still no studying has occured. Go through my last 4 thank you notes that were meant for relatives for my birthday due to my shitty handwriting and then dash down to the post office confident that I had dreamed about getting this job sometime in a past life. I walk the letter up to the counter and hand it to the clerk and life is wonderful. It was like turning in your exam after your last final. The deal is done. Flash back to service in civ pro and the whole in-the-mail, out-of-your-control situation so that if I die, before hearing back in person, my parents can put this job on my resume and attach it to my picture at the wake (Trying to be funny and Holden Caulfield-like. No? Okay.) So it’s basically like a final. Go home, relax, watch the Cards game and eat more chinese food.

Then it hits me. About an hour after I got back from the post office. Sort of as I was starting to think about going to the gym to run and then to the library to study. I am almost positive I spelled the last name of the lady, and in turn her firm, wrong. Like the type of wrong that is small and phonetic, but that could very well knock you out of the running if things were neck-and-neck. Oh yes, I am a future lawyer and no aspect of life is immune from the second-guessing and anguished, horror-laden flashes of doom and despair. I have the type of memory where, while not photographic per se, I can visualize pretty well specific moments. I can basically see the front of the envelope and how I transformed my “it can’t hurt, but it might very well help” letter into a “could very well cost you the greatest job ever” verdict.

I double checked everything else in the letter for spelling since I didn’t have the computer to do it. Then I dashed through the front of the envelope that everyone sees first. Cringe, cringe, cringe. This has happened before, on the Property final last year when I just had to throw in a joke at the end of the final.

It’s okay though. In the end…

-jd

EDITOR’S NOTE 2: Turns out I didn’t get that job. In all likelihood, it wasn’t the spelling on the front of the envelope. Either I was wrong about the spelling or else a secretary probably opened it and I can’t imagine someone mentioning that I got the name wrong by a letter. So who knows. As someone pointed out, maybe the partners had a nephew who suddenly needed a job, thus skipping right over me, perfect interview and all. However, now that it’s summer, I’ve noticed there are a lot of firms that practice using the same model as this “perfect” firm and so I am confident I’ll find something very similar in the near future.

Most of my friends are starting their summer clerkships today. However, since I didn’t really have the credentials in the fall to get an interview during OCI back then, and hardly any of the 20 or so places that were interviewing in the spring were of interest to me since half of them were volunteer and the other half were solely litigation even when I did get interviews, I woke up this morning without a job. Now, I realize that finding jobs in the spring is a little different because small and medium sized firms have openings that sort of come and go like the ocean tide, so I’ve been watching the career services job post board online everyday. Even during finals I was applying to jobs every morning and I have even gotten a number of interviews.

Thus, I’m not panicked or anything yet and I’m sure something will come along to get me some experience in the office and hopefully some extra cash to go out on the town over the summer. Anyway, I have made it my job the last week since I finished finals, to wake up every morning and check for jobs on this online board. I have noticed something very strange and it is not my imagination since I have meticulously printed out all the job sheets each day: new jobs are added not only at the top of the page under the most current date, but also retroactively on earlier dates. Except they weren’t originally listed on that date that they are said to have been entered. To make it clearer, I’ll give this morning as an example.

We had six new job posts. Today is the 22nd of May. No posts are listed under May 22. The most recent post is for a position as the online editor for our region of a well-known legal journal. I am applying for it, thus I remember very well that it was the last post. I also remember the five posts before it since I applyed to all of them on Friday morning. Now, there are new posts dated for last Friday that weren’t there. Two of the new posts were listed as entered on the 19th of May (Friday.) Two more, that weren’t there on Thursday are now listed under May 18th as jobs posted on that date (They absolutely weren’t there before.) There is one new job listed on the 16th of May that is very appealing, but I’m only seeing it today, 6 days later. Finally, there is a great job that I would have applied for listed as the 4th of May that was also not there before.

So what gives? I first noticed this retroactive posting of jobs about two weeks ago. However, today I decided to start printing them out with the current date so I can document it. Timing is very important with these jobs since I’d say 1/3 of the people I know don’t have jobs at this point and even if only 1/10 of our school didn’t have jobs at this point (and that is being very conservative) there would still only be 3-5 jobs at most going up per day for all 100 or so of us (so conservative) to compete for. Not even counting the other schools in the area. My first reaction was that some people were perhaps getting the heads up on jobs. Like maybe law review students or something got an advance listing. However, that would just be too over-the-top and you’d think something like that would get out given how un-secret the law review resume bank is.

However, now I’m wondering if the career services center is bolstering their numbers so they can go back and say they have all these awesome jobs that were posted and maybe people didn’t find them. I know it sounds paranoid, but our center does not have the best reputation among the student population. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt because they seemed pretty helpful towards me last week. Well, 2 out of 3 were very helpful last week when I needed help on a cover letter. Plus I found out they have a free fax machine which has already saved me 10 bucks. But still, it is a strange way of doing the postings. At a minimum, assuming the most innocuous explanation, that maybe they are receiving the applications late and are just filing them under the date listed by the employer, it makes it almost impossible to find because the posts are buried after posts that students have already looked at. I’m not even sure what compelled me to go back and double check for new posts other than that I’m compulsive at times and I really want a job.

I’m trying not to make any accusations, because it seems like there is no good reason other than possibly incompetence, to post new listings that are 18 days old and not even note that the listings are new. I mean, what is the point? I just want answers. I think I’ll go down and ask myself, just point blank (or maybe I should wait and get some evidence, like if they do it tomorrow and I can print that out.)

-jd

I’m not sure how I missed this (oh wait, I was taking a copyright final that day), but Judge J. Michael Luttig of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals resigned a little less than two weeks ago. I only caught wind of it when I was reading Underneath Their Robes of all places (a site I thought was dead and sufficiently memorialized to the right of your screen.) Here is a link to the Legal Times article in case anyone else who missed it is interested. I might have something to say about this, I’m not sure. I’m really just shocked both that a SCOTUS short-lister stepped down from a lifetime appointment and for some of the reasons that he seems to have stepped down. I’m sort of just, “wow!” right now.

I guess time for bed.

-jd

As one progresses through law school, they begin to have friends who have already made the transition to the real work. They have 9-5 jobs (hopefully with a law firm) and during those hours they are best reached at the work number. Recently, I added my first “work” number to a friend’s profile on my cell phone. It is both terrifying and exciting. You feel like a grownup, you have to talk to a secretary to see if you can meet up for lunch, you have more numbers in the phone besides perhaps just cell and home. On the other hand, no longer can you just call the usual number and get an instant response like: come on over and we’ll play snowboarding, frisbee golf, watch a movie, whatever.

This a destiny almost as unavoidable as Luke finding out Darth Vader is his father. I mean, you could win the lotto, buy an island, and move all your friends there where you would lie around drinking cocktails and calling each other on walkie talkies al la Billy Madison. But really, pretty soon a majority of your calls will likely be routed through the main lines of their various offices. It is all par for the course when you are on a track for a professional degree. It’s why we get the big bucks (again, hopefully.)

Heck, it would be the same anyway, even if we dropped out and became bartenders. (Oliver Clothesoff! Call for Oliver Clothesoff!)

-jd

I was just taking a quick break from a research project I’m doing and I came across an article about the discovery of a small solar system around a brown dwarf star. I’ve always found this stuff fascinating. When I was little, I used to memorize the different sized stars from blue super giant stars to the brown dwarfs (If they can be classified as stars at all.) I once got in an argument about the difference between red giants and blue giants - I was a big dork.

As an undergrad, I was lucky enough to get a lecture from Sally Ride, but people could care less in that class whether black holes spewed dark matter or whether a light year was bright. Anyway, it is during times like finals or bending over backwards to find a legal job to fill the gap after second year on the resume or doing projects after the semester is over, that I have to tell myself that as a lawyer I could potentially help facilitate the study of space or genetic mapping or whatever. Actually my dad says this. Well, at least I can blog and read about it and hope it proves true in some capacity.

Also, I’ve discovered that there is a bat phone in the library computer room. It is bright red and I hit my head on it while writing this. It apparently dials Lexis. I picked it up and asked if the operator was having a nice day. She wanted to know if I had a question. I asked her if she knew what the duty of loyalty was. She asked if it was a customer service problem, I said no that it was a legal concept. She said that one of the lawyers or researchers could probably help. I said that’s okay. (Next time I better get Commissoner Gordon and there better be an image of justice in all her naked glory projected into the sky.)

-jd

In Egyptian mythology, Ra who represented the sun, was the most powerful of all the gods. So naturally, when it came time to build a sugar cube ancient Egyptian city for 6th grade history class, Ra was the name of my capital. Looking back, this was quite a renaissance period for me: I first got into making up codes and alternate alphabets with new symbols to represent sounds, I was really into city design and architecture, I drew maps of fake countries and elaborately labeled them, and I would go through our World Book encyclopedias to find all the graphs demonstrating the market power of commodities in different states and then I compiled them into a notebook.

I was probably 10 or 11 when this all happened (Read: I peaked.) What brings this up? Well, it is raining pretty hard outside and I discovered I can open the window right next to my bed and so with President Kennedy speaking in the background and the meditative rain sound in the foreground, I sat on my bed counting seconds between thunder clasps and wondering how it was that I was in law school. Additionally, when I turned back to my laptop to finish my latest round of cites (yeah, still doing those…I can’t believe how much work has to be put into this little journal even after grades have been turned in! If only I had gotten better grades and made law review!), I did a random stumble search and came upon Egyptian mythology. Flashback to Mrs. Pierce’s class.

So back then, I could have been a city planner (I would go on to create more than 100 cities through various versions of SimCity throughout my high school and college careers - yes, I was very popular with the women - sometimes). I could have gone towards the CIA or foreign service with the spy angle. I could have become an economist. I hadn’t had my great sequence of writing teachers yet, so any social science or writing-oriented endevour was not high on my list. The only other things I remember from that class were: doing a report of the Ukraine where I optimistically predicted it would become a world power in the guise of France, a girl made fun of me for being a boy and crossing my legs (I was cold and she would later pass me a note telling me she liked me anyway), and I was also introduced to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The main point of the post was not to mention coming across the Egyptian website and how cool history was to me when I was just starting middle school. I just got back from a weekend visiting my parents and I always leave there with the feeling that I made my parents, and my mom in particular, think that I am unhappy with my decision to go to law school. I’ll talk about half a dozen things that interest me or that I’ll have to put off doing until I am an employed attorney and I’m sure it seems like I’m second guessing myself at every point. The thing is, I must have done the same things with city planning, economics, architecture, and even writing if law was the path that I chose to invest the most in. Unfortunately it is just one of my habits, that I like to pretend is lawyer-like, to anaylze things openly if there is a willing audience like my mom.

Ultimately, and even in the aftermath of going into summer without a job and having completed another set of finals which I am pretty sure will just result in average grades (I hope), I am certain that this is where I am supposed to be in life. Law school just fits, more than any other job except the made-up fantasy ones where I get paid to just surf the net all morning and evening and then watch baseball games and drink beer in the middle. (Oh wait, maybe law school is perfect.)

Cue: The Fifth Dimension: Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In medley.

-jd