Why Law School?

A little over a year ago, I decided that I should finally bring my dream of becoming a lawyer into fruition.  I was 24, single (for the most part), and in a rut after being out of college for only 2 years.  Honestly! Work, home, couch, friends, alcohol, cats...I mean, life was as it should have been.  I was interesting, hadn't gotten really fat in my 20's, had a decent amount of friends and a decent amount of money, but that just couldn't be it!

(Summer before law school applications started)

In many ways, law school was always my plan.  Anyone who is close to me, however, knows that my plans for my life have involved getting married and moving to Pakistan, working as an English teacher in Jordan, assisting in an orphanage in Mexico, and going to medical school. Needless to say, I am a bit of a dreamer.  I thought in the back of my mind that I wanted to be a lawyer (this was decided when I marched into the living room at age 4 and announced that I would be a successful lawyer and buy my parents a home in Hawaii), but law school seemed so...serious.  Young fun people didn't go to law school; it was reserved for boring, stuffy individuals who liked wearing badly altered suits and wearing their hair in buns (see Figure A).  I wanted to do much more exciting things than sit in a classroom listening to century old debates about imminent domain. Much more exciting things like...work, home, couch, friends, alcohol, and cats?

Figure A: Law School Student

You see, what I began to realize is that (in my experience at least) when I am not working toward something concrete, my life tends to be like a drop of water in the river.  It's fun and random, and I keep telling myself I will step away from the stream and land on a rock somewhere, and everything will make sense.  But the reality is, the river keeps on rushing and eventually, you get evaporate into thin air after living a life among smelly fish and people wearing rubber shoes. No, not this gal. Life was something more to me than that. I am smart, I have a political science degree, lots of people supporting me, and just enough hunger for life to pull it off.  Besides, becoming a famous improv comedian can be accomplished during my summer breaks, right?

Before I started to work on my law school acceptance, I started with a backup plan. I studied for my GRE and gained acceptance to the International Political Economy Master's Program at UTD.  This not only got my feet wet in the area of studying (it had been a few years, after all), but it also kicked my confidence into shape. I have worth! Someone wants me (or perhaps just my money, but to hell with it)! I also started taking a few online courses (mostly technology, literature, and Spanish; things I was already good at but could use a little touching up on) to get back in the swing of turning in assignments on time, balancing work, school, and social life, and also to help stifle that little voice in the back of my mind telling me I wasn't capable of doing 3 years of law school! 

Now, it was time to actually get into the game....