oh yeah

i participated in an online chat for admissions last night. did this few times last semester and it was kinda fun, so i thought i'd do it again. though i gotta say, some of those kids are going to give themselves a heart attack. i mean, maybe i am just a slacker (see below), but i was just taking the LSAT this time two years ago. maybe, because my gpa was less than stellar, i was just being self aware when i decided to wait until i got my results to start thinking about which schools to go to. sure, i was doing research, but in a very wait-and-see fashion. these people already KNOW where they want to go, and are trying to schedule interviews and shit. i didn't even realize we could do that!

i wish i had done a few things differently when i was considering where to go. first, i was pretty broke and it can get expensive to apply to a lot of places. so i didn't. i did five in total. second, i was too emotional about my choices, and not practical enough. it would have behooved me to apply to more places around the same ranking as where i am now, with one safety and one reach. i was all over the map--san diego cause i was born there and have always wanted to go back, temple cause a friend went there and said that a program of particular interest to me was really good, william and mary cause it's pretty and close to the ocean (and they gave me a waiver), and nyu cause everyone secretly wants to know if they can make it in new york. i am happy where i ended up, though i might not make the same choice if i had it to do again.

and just like that...

done with moot court. i feel good about it though, like i told someone else last night, i'm glad to both be finished and to be able to put more than "participant" on my resume. "quarterfinalist" is good enough. and i need the time that i have now to catch up already. cleaning up my office today so i can use it, and i should be reading for cba. it's just so hard to do any work when my thursday morning class is cancelled. i am free all day until 4:30. walked the dog, got lunch, and assed around on the computer all day so far. no laundry like i planned, or cleaning up, or even completing the reading for my afternoon class. if it weren't for a shitty work ethic, i might have no work ethic at all. at this point my ability to procrastinate is so well developed, it's going to take some doing to change things up.

the edmond fitzgerald, salvaged from the briny depths!

i managed to advance to the next round of the moot court appellate advocacy competition. i have decided to proceed without the cool, detached demeanor of the cautious optimist. no no, not me. i am flinging myself with wild abandon into this whole exercise, and not just so i'll have something good to talk about in my next callback. i am just genuinely nerdy enough to really want to knock this out of the park. and i thrive on feedback, so i think i can really craft a relatively seamless, persuasive approach to this whole thing based on my critiques. i go first tomorrow, early evening.

i should take this opportunity to address those who would continue to question my choice to not compete in the law review write on competition in favor of heavy moot court participation. at this point, i could not be more at peace with the way my 2L year is going (okay, that's a lie...i would like to have one job offer under my belt so that knot in my stomach would relax a little, but what can you do). any vestigial conflict i was feeling about my decision to compete my little ass off in moot court instead of attmepting law review has disappeared. i am good at this; i have some skills and am improving. and i am actually enjoying it.

i have crossed a very important threshold, i have passed some sort of test. faced with two opportunities, one which i knew was money in the bank for job searching, and one which i knew i would excell at and enjoy a lot more but lacking that same resume oomph, i chose the latter. and i am happy to say that i chose to seek out the work that i wanted to do, that gave me a sense of fulfillment rather than the endless drudgery of the "better" choice.

i am also at the crossroads of academia and practice. do i want to be someone who helps to navigate the direction of legal scholarship? do i want to be a law professor? i thought i might, but at this point, i have decided otherwise. i am at peace with the fact that i chose law school while my two best friends chose graduate school in english. they are both already incredible writers and will make inspiring professors, and i envy their students tremendously. but i chose a different path. i chose a professional school, almost a trade school really. i view law school as learning and honing a set of skills, more than anything else, which i will take out into the world to make a comfortable existence for me and my family and to do some good. hopefully the two will not be mutually exclusive.

in my continuing quest to escape law school...

I have registered to play in the
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my first meme

thought this was cool...

it’s the tool of the oracle and it’s supposed to reveal your true nature.

instructions:
1. delve into your blog archive.
2. find your 23rd post.
3. find the fifth sentence.
4. post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.


mine was:
"i am exhausted, but i actually feel kinda good."

ha! it works!