MURDERED!

I'm killing this blog. I don't particularly enjoy writing about myself and am pretty wary of saying something that puts me in hot water (that said, I have SO MUCH to say about certain people and certain things, oh well). From here on out, treat this thing as you would a serial killer in a horror movie; it's dead, with a chance of return.

Since this is my last post, I'll update my life to this point:

1. I graduated from law school:

Bittersweet. VERY bittersweet. I worked my ass off to graduate and did pretty well over the last few semesters, but am jobless and uncertain about what exactly I want to do now. I'd always assumed that something would click in law school and make me say: "I really want to do this for the rest of my life," but that never happened. I'm keeping my options open at this point (while excluding all private sector work...).

2. I suffered through senior week and graduation weekend:

Due to a writing project that I was working on with a professor, I did not finish until after exam period. I'd already completed the project, but we were still putting final touches on the project. That meant that when I was supposed to be celebrating with my friends, I was stuck in the undergrad library. Not fun.

By the time senior week rolled around, I was wiped and a bit under the weather. I did my best to put on a happy face, but it was a pale one.

Grad weekend itself was brutal. My parents went through an ugly divorce while I was in law school and things really deteriorated between them over the last year. I spent most of the weekend focusing on ways to keep my parents/step-parents apart in a futile attempt to keep the peace. That added up to a celebration FAIL.

3. I completed the Maryland bar application:

Like everything in life, I put this off to the last minute. I didn't have time to do it while I was doing everything I needed to do to graduate. After that, I was stuck in my senior week/graduation quagmire. So, the day after graduation, I finally started working on the sixty page Maryland bar application.

I imagine that it takes most people a significant chunk of time to complete the bar application. If you add a Saab 900 with a broken speedometer to the mix, it becomes crushingly time-consuming. Between making calls to random jurisdictions between DC and Cleveland (along my ticket-riddled drive to college...) and trying to track down notaries, I just barely got my application in time to actually sit for the bar exam.

4. I had five days without an obligation of any kind:

So, I went to the beach with my closest male friends from school. We proceeded to get hammered, eat crab, play putt-putt, get more hammered, watch The Saint, and generally destroy all hope of being well-rested for our bar classes. That was good times.

5. I began my online bar course:

I chose to use Themis to study for the bar. It was half the price of Barbri and I had read enough antitrust cases involving Barbri that I felt I should help the little guy. We'll see if I made the right choice on November 5th, when the Maryland bar results come out.

In all seriousness, I think the substance of the course was solid. I felt I learned a lot and after the test felt like I had been sufficiently prepared.

My big complaint is that they scheduled in an impossible amount of work, which I think added significantly to my level of stress. Continually failing to complete your allotment of daily tasks can be disheartening. I assume they want to be able to say to people, "well, if you had completed all of your assignments, we are confident that you would have passed."

That's exactly the sort of thinking that pervaded my law school experience. Instead of focusing on each student learning the material to the best of their ability, the focus was on forcing everyone to adhere to an archaic system of learning that may or may not have any bearing on what sort of lawyer or test-taker they produce. Just as GW adapted Harvard's use of the Socratic Method, Themis adapted Barbri's use of the Bombardment Method. Is there no better way? Are lawyers incapable of deducing a variety of methods to create better students and advocates? Meh, that's a subject for a full post of its own (if this blog wasn't facing imminent termination...).

6. I took the Maryland bar exam:

It was hard, but fair. I felt like I did a very solid job with all ten essays. As for the MPT, it was not difficult but I only left myself sixty minutes to complete what's supposed to take ninety and thus wasn't able to say everything I wanted to say. Hopefully, it wasn't a big deal.

The MBE sucked. I slept like an angel after the first day and felt that the only thing that could prevent a pass would be a complete meltdown on the MBE. I don't think I had a meltdown but had trouble focusing and as a result, I worked much slower than usual. I didn't get to ten questions, so just filled in "B," like my barbri friends told me to. Hopefully those questions will get tossed or they mercifully come up "B." We'll see, I guess.

Regardless, I'm proud of how hard I worked and how I performed on the exam day. If I failed, it will not be for lack of preparation.

7. I went to the drunken olympics:

Yes, I'm now a two-time drunken olympian. My first go-around was a failure, as I didn't drink nearly enough to compete. I put in a much stronger showing this year, but my team still came up short (I'm still not sure how that's possible, considering how many events we "won"). Although I battled some not-so-fun hangovers, I didn't get sick or commit any major crimes. Surely I deserve a medal of some sort for that.

8. What's next:

Who knows! I'm taking some short trips but not an actual bar trip. My main focus will be figuring out my career situation. Normally I would blog about any major decisions but this thing is DEAD! Thus, if you want to know what's going on with me, give me a call or find me on gchat. Thanks for stopping by Pay the Money and Take a Shot!