The Truth shall set you free

I want to mail my Moral Character & Fitness App tomorrow, but there are a few lingering questions. How truthful should I be in the application? I don’t mean that i’m considering lying at all on the app, but when they ask a simple question, do you JUST answer the question, or do you respond with everything but the kitchen sink? For example, if they ask - “Have you ever been diagnosed with a mental illness/disease, including depression?” do you respond “No” or do you respond “No, I’ve never been diagnosed with depression, but I see a counselor/psychologist on a weekly basis and am currently taking herbs and vitamins to stabilize my mood swings.” I’d think that the latter is a more “truthful” answer, even though it goes into more detail than what is asked. Really, we are training to be lawyers here - you’d think they would tell us to only respond to the ”call of the question” or suggest that perhaps we adhere to the “spirit” of the question, which might elicit a reponse like the above. I feel comfortable saying that I’m a relatively moral person, and there is only one question that makes me second-guess my reponse (thankfully, it is not anything to do with mental illness!), so I’m not too worried. More horrible than failing the Bar, though, would be failing the Moral Character & Fitness requirement because I didn’t disclose something I felt was unnecessary, yet there were facts the Committee wanted to know.

I wonder if I should also disclose the feelings of jealousy and bitterness I’m experiencing towards those who have post-graduation jobs, with big pst-graduation salaries, whose firms are paying for their post-graduation bar study courses, who are able to spend all their pre-graduation money NOW going out to dinner, shopping, enjoying life because they know there will be more money in the bank tomorrow. I added up my loans tonight, and - without including some interest - they total approximately $106,000. It’s hard to be excited about the next few months (or even this weekend) looking at that enormous amount and then at the miniscule amount in my checking account. I wish life wasn’t all about money. I wish so many of my decisions weren’t based on how much money I have. I know that I’ll get a job eventually and everything will work out - it always does. But…. this definitely has not been as easy as I’d hoped it would be.

Where's the Love?

This year, one thing that has displeased me greatly about my law school is the lack of resources/information about the Bar Exam and Bar Preparation. Granted, as law students, we should take matters into our own hands and research the requirements and deadlines for our states, but the school has held our hand through everything else the past two years, you'd think they'd give us SOMETHING. We have one page on our school website that has a bit of bar information, but 80% of the page is devoted to Virginia applicants and irrelevant for the rest of us. It would not be that difficult to post a webpage, send an email, pass around a piece of paper, or hold a mandatory class meeting at the beginning of 3L fall semester with all the bar app deadlines, a description of what might be required by the apps, various bar review programs, etc. As 1L's, we sat through idontknowhowmany hours of career services lectures about how to get a job, where to look for jobs, how to shake hands, how to interview, how to use a spoon properly, and how to write a resume, yet pretty much none of that matters unless we pass the Bar... and the school offers no help with that. I don't think I'm asking too much. I know I am responsible for myself and my future legal career, which is one reason I'm thinking about the Bar NOW, but am I not paying the law school to aid me in these endeavors??!?!?!

Anyway, check out what Golden Gate Univ of Law has posted for their students. They have some useful tips. Maybe i'll email the link to our Dean too...

Spring is in the Air

As we are only a mere 48hrs away from saying goodbye to February and welcoming in March, I’m really hoping that the old saying, “March comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb” is true. March promises to be a busy month and the first few weeks are going to fly by, I know. March starts off bittersweet - March 2, I download the Bar Application, knowing I only have one month to compile all that required information. March 8, I wake up with a big fat sloppy grin on my face knowing I will, that evening, finally be with my sexy man again after a torturous, seemingly endless two month separation. The world will stop for us until March 19 when I’m back in the Burg contemplating my final month and a half as a law student (or any kind of student for that matter!) At the rate I’m going now, though, the end of the month promises to be anything but “lamb”-like. There’s that whole application thing to deal with, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the SF Superior Courts will call me back to CA for an interview. Not to mention, those 5 classes of mine and GRF projects raising their ugly head week after week.

(I can’t believe they only give us a month to complete the Bar Application. I still haven’t sent in my Moral Character and Fitness Application either. UGH. Why do I do this to myself? The thing has been sitting on my kitchen table for a month already and I’ve yet to even fill in my name.)

Recently I’ve been checking back in with more of the “blawgs” since all the Feb folks are getting ready to start their exams tomorrow… I think I need to stop because it makes me more nervous. How do you study for the Bar? How do you create a study guide for yourself and cover all the subjects? I feel like the MBE isn’t going to be SO bad, because at least some of that stuff is actually still in my head from first year, but what about the California subjects? How am I going to learn those?? One of the blawgers posted a few sample MBE questions on her site, and as I read them, I thought - “Hmm… This doesn’t even look like english to me.” Yeah, THAT’S promising. My next mission for Bar preparation is to find out how to make a study plan. What to include, how many MBE’s/Essays/Practice Tests I should try to take each day or each week. I don’t even know where to begin, but there’s got to be some information out there somewhere.

In non-law school news, my old roommate from SF just called me the other day and said that I could stay in her place, alone, for FREE during half the summer while she travels around Europe. A 3 bdrm apt in The City all to myself for a month and a half… I have to admit that it wasn’t so much the “free” part that got me as the “alone.” The thought of possibly never again having my own place has made me physically ill at moments. Sometimes I love having a roommate, other times I long for the total anonymity and freedom that comes with living tout seul. I can’t believe this opportunity just dropped in my lap. I feel like it’s another sign that this is the right thing for me to do, the right place for me to be.