Aspiring Prosecutor. Runner. Nerd Extraordinaire
Musings
Today, We Get to Learn About the Law
Jun 26th
As I write this post, there are exactly 31 days until the bar exam. That’s a month. To inspire the requisite fear in us to start studying even harder (and allegedly give us an idea of where we are in our progress) BarBri gave everyone in Pennsylvania a simulated Multistate Bar Examination today. It was extremely difficult. Tomorrow and Monday we get to sit in a classroom for 8 hours listening to someone explain why we got a huge portion of the answers wrong. This is enough to depress a guy. Or girl. I’m not discriminating, or maybe I am? Based on that test I don’t know.
While I was in the shower washing away my depression, I remembered something very important: I want to be a lawyer. I’ve wanted to be a lawyer for a very long time. In fact, I’ve wanted to be a lawyer for as long as I can remember. There are myriad reasons why, and the reasons have changed and evolved as the years have gone on. However, over the last two years, while studying ethics and training to become a prosecutor, one of the more important reasons became clear: law is an honorable profession.
Nonlawyers may (and most likely will) disagree. Even a good number of lawyers may disagree. Nonetheless, when people are in a moment of need and must reach out for help, they turn to lawyers. When they need advice about how to make sure their wills are sorted out properly, or when they’re in trouble with the police, or want to buy a home, people call lawyers. This is a great responsibility to take up, and the bar examination is a necessary step before one can don this mantle of responsibility.
Once one takes on this responsibility, he or she must wear it all the time. As our lecturer on professional responsibility explained “You’re a lawyer 24 hours a day.” Even when a lawyer is not representing a client, she has responsibilities.
As a public citizen, a lawyer should seek improvement of the law, access to the legal system, the administration of justice, and the quality of service rendered by the legal profession. As a member of a learned profession, a lawyer should cultivate knowledge of the law beyond its use for clients, employ that knowledge in reform of the law, and work to strengthen legal education. In addition, a lawyer should further the public’s understanding of and confidence in the rule of law and the justice system because legal institutions in a constitutional democracy depend on popular participation and support to maintain their authority.1
Many of the people who will sit for bar examinations across the country this summer have wanted to be a lawyer as long as I have. Many of them are down in the dumps over studying for the bar. We cannot look at it this way. Instead, for the rest of the summer, we should all remind ourselves why we want to become lawyers. If you’re anything like me, it’s because you love the law. So why so down? When you’re sitting in that lecture hall, remember that you’re learning about something you love: the law. Today, and tomorrow, and for as long as I can foresee, I get to learn about the law.2 It will be an awesome time. Let it begin.
1. Alaska Rules of Professional Conduct: Preamble
2. We never stop learning, especially when it comes to the law. Even from one case, we hardly ever wring out every last drop of education, according to my Ethics professor.
Mental Marathon Training
May 28th
Over a year ago, I went for my first training run for the Couch-to-5K program, which consisted of about 1.5 miles. I thought I was going to die. At the time, I thought it was crazy that I could run a 5K. I was mentally exhausted and somewhat miserable. Yet 9 weeks later, I did. Fast forward to the beginning of this year when I started training for my first half marathon. It was the same thing after my first “long” run of 5 miles. The run was extremely difficult and both mentally and physically taxing. Yet in May of 2010, 12 weeks later, I finished my first half marathon. It was enjoyable, and the sense of accomplishment afterward was fantastic.
Yesterday, I had my first BarBri class. Very much like my first run, I thought the lecture would never end. I checked my watch much too frequently, and could not wait to finish. When I got home, I felt brain dead and unintentionally fell asleep for a 30 minute nap.
Now I have about 8 weeks to get all of the information pictured here, into my head. It won’t be easy. But this morning as I was doing a smidgen of reviewing, it occurred to me how similar BarBri is to marathon training. There is a pace schedule that tells you exactly what to do and when to do it. If you stick to the schedule, you’ll be fine. But the BarBri guy told us on the first day that the schedule is tough. We may not be able to stick to it. The same was true of my half marathon training schedule. It called for four runs a week, plus cross training. That’s a lot to fit in. Similarly, BarBri calls for 3-4 hours of lecture time, plus an additional 3-6 hours of outside work. It’s a lot. But my plan is to treat this training just like I did the half marathon training. Keep to the schedule as best I can, and on test day just hope that it will all pay off. If I need video game time breaks, I will make sure to take them. Will it all work out? Hopefully. I’ll let you know in the middle of October.
A Year in Review…According to Facebook
Dec 25th
A few days ago, Facebook released the top trends of 2009. These are categories of words found in status updates. For example, “Family” includes words like Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, etc. Meanwhile, “Lady Gaga” includes phrases like “Poker Face.” The number two category includes words like “law school” is just the phrase “FML.” Enjoy the list! For a complete description of each category, check out Facebook’s explanation.
Some Guys Have No Nerd Cred
Oct 30th
The symbol this city needs
Girl: I can’t believe you don’t watch movies, that’s ridiculous.
Boy: I do watch movies, I’ve just never seen Batman.
At this point I turned around and yelled asked “What?”
The girl burst into laughter and the guy was NOT happy. To avoid having to show him how much I’ve learned from watching Batman, I got out of there quickly.
Zords
Aug 7th
This summer I have done a ton of driving. Now, I love my Nissan. I enjoy driving it and it handles great. But I was thinking last night that I would love to mix things up a bit. The following text message conversation between me and my good friend Emily ensued:
Me: I was just thinking that the only thing I would rather drive back to Pittsburgh than the Nissan is a zord.
You don’t know what a zord is? Obviously they are the vehicles driven by the power rangers, as indicated by the video at the end of this post.
Emily: Bahahaha! Which one? Or the mega zord?
Me: Dragonzord would be fun, but conspicuous. I would need one that flies. The megazord is too much to pilot solo.
Emily: Hahahaha! So true so true. I always liked Kimberly’s zord*
*The pterodactyl
Me: You’re such a girl
Emily: You just said you needed something that flies!
Me: True, true. But pink? Then I’d have to wear pink shirts all the time*.
*In case you didn’t know, the Power Rangers always wore shirts that matched the color of their zords. Kimberly was the pink ranger, because she is a girl.
Emily: You only said you wanted a zord to drive to pitt…not actually enlist! And anyways you love pink!
Me: Haha. “Enlist.” The nice thing about pitt is the rivers so there are plenty of places to hide zords.
As indicated by the video below, zords must come from a hidden location. Lacking volcanoes, any of the three rivers would be great hiding places.
