Too Slow or Too Quickly?

Sometimes I just wish I was already in law school, spending 20 hours a day studying or in class. Other days I even wish I was in the District Attorney's office in New York City.

And then there are days that I'm terrified of law school, that I want to stay in my safe undergraduate studies.

I mean, I know I want to go to law school. Unlike my year as a Secondary Education major, I honestly don't see my dream of being a prosecutor fading away. I could spend all day sitting in my Criminal Justice System class with the other CJ "geeks". Where else could I get excited about the Bill of Rights, talk death penalty in terms of constitutionality, or have someone finish my rambling of the Miranda warnings and be able to cite the Supreme Court case they stemmed from? I'm just hoping that my Crime and Delinquency class next semester proves to be just as entrancing as Criminal Justice has been...

My favorite courtroom drama, The Whole Truth, returned last night with many excited squeals from me. I adore SVU, Bones, and Castle, but I'm more in love with WT since it takes place in the courtroom and goes so far as to show both sides of the case, all the steps involved in building a case.


In other news, I'm still applying for an internship in Washington, D.C. this summer. I'm aiming for one of the district courts or something similar. I draw the line, unless it's my only choice, at interning at a corporate law firm. It's something I've never been interested in and I want this summer to be worthwhile and interesting. My dad has already booked a hotel room around the Fourth of July to visit me over the summer without me knowing if I even have an internship yet! The trust is overwhelming.

Disneyland of Law Schools.

Boston College Law School, that is. Apparently, people are actually nice to one another there despite the cutthroat admission process.

Yet another school to add to my list...

8 More Work Days...

The glamor of working in a golf course's phone room has worn off. I needn't say that it was never there to begin with. I have run out of books to read and re-read and playing pointless games on the internet is no longer entertaining. I may never want to see a polo shirt again, which is strange coming from me who loves polos. I never want to answer the phone with a cheerful "Good morning/afternoon, Juniper Hill Golf Course, how can I help you?" ever again.

Needless to say, I cannot wait for August 27th when I can break myself out of the cramped office I have spent every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday since May.


In other news...
I'm still researching law schools. NYLS still looks to be my favorite, but three others have arrived on-scene. They are Brooklyn Law School in Brooklyn, NY, New England Law, and Suffolk University's School of Law, both of which are in Boston, MA. I'm starting to look in Washington, DC as well. The only thing that has remained steady in this search is that I want to study in a city, not in the rural areas that I have grown up and spent my undergrad years in.

Breakthrough!

Today, at work, my grandmother came to visit. She lives about two minutes away from the golf course and my grandfather works there with me. Anyway, we were talking (me ranting, actually) about the miserable pieces of humanity I have to deal with over the phone. Well doesn't she say "And you want to be a lawyer? Talk about the humanity that they deal with!" My heart stopped not from fear, but from semi-joy that someone was taking me seriously!! I reassured her that I'd be on the side of the "good guys," that the humanity would be on the other side of the courtroom.

I was so excited it nearly made what started as a crappy day sparkle.

PS - I love, love, love Linda Fairstein and her novels. Some of the best books I have ever read and I am overjoyed that I decided to pick up my half-finished copy of The Bone Vault during my boredom at work and find myself flying through all of them. Right now, halfway done with Lethal Legacy and cannot wait to get my hands on Hell Gate. It's lovely to be able to see inside, really inside, what life as a NYC prosecutor really is like. Linda is not making this up or trying to remember what the offices looked like from a short research visit. SHE LIVED IT! Such an inspiration and an amazing author. But, she should also sort of get Alex and Mike together. Just saying that with all the sexual tension she has built between them over the series, SOMETHING needs to happen!

An Uphill Battle

That's what trying to convince my parents that I'm serious about law school is. They are still convinced that since I set out for college with the goal of becoming a high school English teacher, that is the only thing I ever should be. Every once in a while, Dad says "Well, we have two of them heading into education," (refering to me and my younger brother who is majoring in Secondary Education and History), but I fight to tell him that while I am still majoring in Secondary Education and English, it is only with the goal of having something to fall back on if law school doesn't work out.

Anyway, I have been frantically swallowing up legal novels. I only just picked up my nearly-finished copy of Linda Fairstein's The Bone Vault and have been swept up in her entire Alexandra Cooper series. In fact, I'm nearly finished with Bad Blood and was heartbroken to find that I am nearing the end of what she has written. To quell the months of waiting after I get to Hell Gate, I have picked up the first book by Alafair Burke and the one book that shows up on every "Do You Want To Be A Lawyer" list - Scott Turow's One L. A co-worker has also pointed me in the direction of John Grisham, a novelist I had avoided since he tends to focus on large firms rather than my area of interest, criminal law, but since I have all summer, I might try a few of his.


I am working at a golf course for the summer, answering the phones to make tee-times. An incredibly unexciting job, but a job nonetheless (hey, I'll take $10 an hour!). Basically, I sit in my own office with a phone, computer, sheets of info on rates and directions to the course, and two or three books. I've gone through a book a week since I started work. I addition to reading, I have had plenty of time to research law schools. New York Law School is still my top choice, followed by NYU and Columbia. My reasonings are as follows:

- NYLS is smaller. While that may seem conterproductive in a society that recognizes the Name Schools (i.e., Harvard, Yale, etc.), I don't want to attend a school where I am a number. NYLS seems to be just the right size. Plus, looking at my GPA (which is sure to change over three years), NYLS looks to be my best bet. Only time will tell with the LSATs.

- Along the same line, while NYU is a top school on all the lists, I've read a few articles about exactly what those lists use for consideration for ranking. While most people will totally recognize the name NYU or Columbia (and probably not the one of New York Law School), do these lists take into consideration something other than the average incoming GPA or LSAT score or whether incoming 1Ls were valedictorians? Somehow, I doubt the answer is yes.

- This point is really moot when I think about it, and yes, it is petty. NYLS is simply closer to where I want to work when I graduate. I plan on spending my days either in a cramped public servant office or in the courtrooms of 60 and 100 Centre Street. Why not take the opportunity to walk to the courtrooms and sit in on a few trials during law school? And yes, I realize that NYU is not that far from the Financial District surrounding Foley Square, but still...


In other news, my younger brother (the one spoken of earlier) graduated from high school on Friday! He is headed off to Westfield State to double major in Secondary Education and History after a long love affair with military history. His girlfriend is going to UMass Lowell for a degree in Psychology. Now, the parents get a break from graduations for two years until my younger brother graduates from his vocational school, then two more years until my sister graduates from high school. By that time, hopefully I'll be in law school!!

New York City.

Honestly, I have been there twice, but I know it's where I want to live for the rest of my life. I went my freshman year of high school with the music department to see RENT on Broadway. Junior year I went with my Mom and sister to see what is legitimately my favorite show/movie ever, Legally Blonde. Both times I have been starstruck even though we ventured no further than Times Square and to the very southern part of Central Park.

Well, I managed to finagle a birthday trip there this summer. My birthday was in March, but my Mom knows how much I love NYC and I am arranging a trip down for the girls in the family (me, Mom, my sister, grandmother, aunt, and cousin). We're going to see Lion King and eat at what has to be my favorite restaurant ever: Ellen's Stardust Diner. The waiters and waitresses all sing as they serve food which I think is amazing. After all, even if they never land that role, they have already sung on Broadway! Unfortunately, the money is a litte tight at home and I'm trying to find all the ways I can to save money. I can cover the tickets for the bus ride down, but the hotel and tickets for the show come out to about $1200.

I never really realized how expensive the city was before. I keep looking for apartments for when I graduate (well in advance, mind you), but I simply cannot fathom paying at least $1000 a month for an apartment PLUS food and everything else on top of that!! Hopefully I can start saving up my money from this job right now and have enough to at least start out in the city or move there eventually.


During this trip I hope to get down to Centre Street and maybe walk by New York Law School and NYU if not pick up some information. Again, it seems like my parents don't believe my sincerity in my urge for law school or they just plain don't want me going, but I hope that if I keep pushing and pushing it, eventually they will see that I am dead serious about this. But just in case I have any more bouts of indecisiveness regarding law school, I'm making a list of books to start finding and reading to see if I really am ready to be a lawyer in real life and not like one on my TV shows.

Ponderings.

While I realize that I have already ranted today (having looked at the length of that rant, I am astounded), I just wanted to jot down my law school hopefuls. I am determined to go to New York City for law school (or grad school if that course wins out). It is literally my favorite city in the world and I've only been twice. But when I'm there, everything seems to fit. I'm tired of living in the country and going to schools in the country. I'm ready for city life where there is always something to do when I'm bored other than go cow-tipping (kidding!).

These are in no particular order:
- New York University
- Columbia University
- New York Law School
- Fordham University

Actually, strike the "no particular order" comment. I love the location of New York Law School. It's two blocks from my favorite Law and Order scene, 60 Centre Street, which is the Supreme Court building for New York County. I'm planning a trip to NYC this summer and I am determined to get down to the southern tip of Manhattan long enough to get pictures of this beautiful building.



While watching the short-lived Conviction (by the same creator of Law and Order), I like to imagine myself walking down those steps. And the inside of the rotunda is gorgeous!

And although I have not taken the LSATs and my GPA is nowhere near being complete, NYLS looks like the best bet for me. I know that Columbia and NYU are both Go-Go Gadget reach schools and I haven't fully looked into Fordham beyond the fact that it is right near the Lincoln Center.

Summertime.

...And the living is easy. Or so the song goes.

I guess it's true, though. I spend my days, 8 to 3, sitting in an office with a computer and telephone. Most of the time is spent on Facebook or playing pointless games or catching up on all that reading lost over freshman year. Plus, the weekly paycheck is not a bad reminder that things could be much worse.

I'm also taking the time to really try and figure out what I want to do with life. I entered college determined to be the 5% that never changes their mind about what they want to do. Entering with two majors in English and Secondary Education was the first step in my goal of becoming a high school English teacher. I had loved reading since a young age and wanted to share that with future generations. It all changed over the summer between senior high school year and move-in day of freshman year.

I spent the summer watching every episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. I had never really been into the crime genre until reading a series of books dealing with it and became hooked. Knowing that my weight, which is less-than-ideal for most people, would prohibit me from taking the Police Academy test and passing, I focused on the other half of the title, the 'order' part of things. Alex Cabot become my goal. I wanted to fight for the proverbial "good guys" with my perfectly groomed blonde hair and impeciable lawyer fashion. While I lack the blonde locks from my childhood and haven't quite gotten my skirts and tailored jackets together, the prosecutors are still what I aim to become.

And before anyone points out that life as an assistant district attorney is nothing like what is portrayed on television, I realized that a while ago from simply researching.

Instead of looking for good schools to get a Masters in English, I've been researching law schools. Instead of reading up on the Classics that every good English major should know inside and out, I thumb through "Criminal Law in a Nutshell."

The hardest part is trying to convince my family that I am serious about considering law school. Every time my sister catches me looking into New York Law School or NYU, she has to comment that it won't matter, that I'm going to be an English teacher, not a lawyer. My mother found out when she joined Facebook and saw that, in my profile, I had said I was considering becoming a prosecutor. Somehow, I get the feeling that they don't think I can do it or that I'm blindly following a friend who is also planning on going into law. I wish I could tell them I'm not. I feel a genuine passion for this and even though I still plan on double majoring in both English (which I've heard is a good undergrad degree to start law school with) and Secondary Education (a fall back if anything else), I have added the minors of Political Science and Writing and Rhetoric and I'm currently toying with the idea of a third minor in Communications.

I've been looking for internships for my junior or senior year. Most of them are through the Washington Center in D.C. There's placements in NCIS, the US Marshal Service, the Department of Justice, and the Attorney General's office. When I bring these up with my mother, she seems skeptical about their significance to education and how it would help me become a better teacher. It's as if she doesn't think I am serious about all this when I really want to scream it from the mountaintop that this is the course I want to take in life. I just don't understand why some people are so unsupportive of my goal in life, as uncertain and unlike the person they know it is. Yes, I started as a high school English teacher, but things have changed and what I really want to spend my life doing is standing in front of twelve jurors and argue my case.