But a journey...
Law school is not the ending chapter of your story. It is not the answer to your life's search for a purpose. Law school will certainly not make you happy.
One thing I find extremely common amongst all my LSAT students (regardless of their score) is their "happy ever after" attitude about law school. While studying for the LSAT, one of my best students cried and mumbled to me: "I need to get into Harvard." She spent hours and hours each day studying for the LSAT. Despite my efforts to comfort her and help her relax, she stressed and cried right up until (and even after) the test. Law school was EVERYTHING to her. Getting into law school was the final act, and she was convinced that nothing mattered more than getting into Harvard. (She eventually did get into Harvard).
It honestly saddens me a bit to see this self-induced torture. Having an absolutist view of law school is already placing too much pressure on one's shoulder. And imagine the disappointment crashing down on someone who finds themselves just as lost and desperate as they were before law school.
This is exactly why I get excited when my LSAT students decide to take some time off before going to law school. Any job, I mean ANY job, will help bring perspective to one's legal education.
Law school is not the finish. It is but a journey; a means to an end.
posted by Mystery @ 3:18 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
I totally agree. Somebody, not sure who, said that law school is like a pie eating contest and the prize is more pie. We kill ourselves to get in. Then we kill ourselves to get good grades, write-on to law review, be on moot court, get as much out of school as possible so we can get the firm job. Then once we have the firm job we have to kill ourselves with billable hours. It doesn't have to be this way. We should be doing things because we are genuinely interested in them, not because of some sense of competitiveness or missing out. This is what happens when 90% of a law school's incoming class was in the top 10% of their UG class.
this is why i was concerned when one of my lsat students told me she was going to law school because she needed to finance her penchant for designer clothing.
1L@ UT law,
Are you serious?! oh wow. I think that's the best "why I need to go to law school" story I've heard yet.
Here's a worse one. I once had an engineering student say that he became an engineer to increase his marriage prospects. Given, he was from India. Designer clothing? She won't even have time to shop and she'll be in suits all day.
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