My #1 letter writer just emailed me to say….he’s done! It will go out in the mail tomorrow!
Please, gods of LSAC, be good to me and process it QUICKLY!
Sigh. I feel a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
I started this blog as a personal exercise. I needed a place to hash out all the conflicting emotions I was having about my (then) suddenly burning desire to go to law school. For as long as I can remember, when I felt confused, I wrote about it. I have boxes of old journals from high school and earlier; I have archived electronic journals I kept in college. I have an old blog that I kept for a few months when blogging was brand new; I have another, personal blog, where I post longer bits, more personal bits, things that are not necessarily related to law school.
And see, that’s where things start getting confusing. This blog was intended to be just about law school. I wanted a place where I’d post my thoughts and reactions to LSAT study, application hassles, rejections and acceptances, and my eventual decision-making process. But as it’s grown and developed, this blog has become more personal, a place where I post not just my law school thoughts, but also my random musings, reactions to horoscopes, weekend adventures, and other experiences. I don’t know that I like that. It’s not that I dislike the disclosure of it all, although I am quite wary of broadcasting my identity on the internet. It just doesn’t feel right somehow.
I have started sharing more and more—but I am ever-conscious of how thinly veiled my identity really is. So I censor myself rather readily to keep what anonymity I have. This doesn’t feel good to me, but I almost can’t help it! Jeremy says,
I also think there’s a difference between an anonymous blog and a non-anonymous one. The anonymous ones, to me, are like people are hiding something to begin with — that if it’s found, people will assume it was anonymous for a reason.
I think there’s a lot of validity to that. There are things I don’t say because I am afraid of being “found out,” as it were. I’m anonymous, but not anonymous enough.
Right now, I’m contemplating becoming completely un-anonymous. There seems to be some freedom in that. I’d curtail my personal commentary somewhat, but that might force me to restrict those kinds of writings to a more appropriate venue. I just don’t know. I’d like some thoughts on it, though—anonymous bloggers, what benefit do you get from being anonymous? And those of you who are fully outed, as it were—do you restrict yourself because you are easier to find?
I heard (finally) from a woman I know who volunteered to write me a letter of recommendation for one of my schools that she has a connection with. I’d tried to reach her a few weeks ago and when I hadn’t gotten a response, figured the offer wasn’t valid or she was too busy. Turns out, she was just having email problems. She said she’s still willing to write the letter. I asked her how much time she’d need….that’s the critical thing, you know.
So that’s a happy for today.
So a friend of mine from college graduated from law school in May and took the bar in this, our home, state.
Bar results are out, and I don’t see her name. So I think she didn’t pass the bar.
What is the best response? We don’t hang out a lot, but we have happy hour every month or so. Since I’m getting my information from a website, I don’t feel comfortable just calling her up and saying, “Oh my God! You failed the bar! I’m so sorry, let’s go get drunk!” But, likewise, calling her up and saying, “Hey, let’s get a drink tomorrow!” seems phony, not owning up to why I’m calling her.
What would you prefer, dear reader(s)? The random call or the pity call? Or some version in between?
Friday
Barbecue! Lots and lots of barbecue. And then beer. All good things.
Saturday
One of the best football games I have ever been to. The crowd was going CRAZY! Absolutely amazing.
Also: ran into a friend whose wife is a 1L. He says he’s proud of her because she’s really doing this law school thing and enjoying it. She does, however, “study all the time.” I’m going to assume when he says “study” he means “read.” I’ve always been mystified by the varied uses of the word “study” in a school context. To me, studying is review—going over material in preparation for an exam. Reading is preparing for class. Of course, there’s also writing and research, but those aren’t studying either. Maybe this is just me. How do you think of the word “study”? Is it an exam-specific thing or do you study all the time? Maybe she is studying—she’s done the reading, the writing, and the research, and she’s reviewing it all in case she gets called on in class. Or maybe he means that she’s already working on her outlines. I don’t know. Any thoughts?
Sunday
Beautiful music in church—a cool, bizarre, big piece by Benjamin Britten, and then a lovely motet by Stanford. Followed up by buttermilk pancakes, made by yours truly. And then, because I was in a cooking mood and I have a new food processor, I made red sauce from a new recipe (note to self: reduce amount of sugar, because sauce was a little sweet), then a spaghetti bake (browned ground sirloin folded into red sauce, tossed with spaghetti and layered, like a lasagna, with shredded mozarella). Yum.
And now it’s a new week. Letters of recommendation will hopefully be mailed on Friday. Until then, it’s life as usual.
