Graduation Day

Today’s a big day for me because today I graduate from law school.  That’s some crazy business.  I have wanted to be a lawyer for as long as I can remember.  All throughout high school and college, I did things with the intention that they would help me get into law school.  By the time my senior year of college rolled around, I wasn’t so sure anymore.  There wasn’t anything else that I wanted to do, but I didn’t know if I wanted to go straight into law school.  I had just gotten back into the country after being gone for a year and was involved in a million activities so I was always busy and stressed.  My mom went to a law school fair thing for me (I couldn’t go because of a school commitment) and someone there told her that if I wanted to get in anywhere that I needed to have my application done before Christmas.

I basically was at the point where I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I needed to do something.  I finally decided that I would apply to two local schools and if they didn’t work out then I would take a year off to reevaluate.  I knew that if it was in God’s plan for me to go straight into law school, then he would make it happen.  I got my applications in during January and then it was a waiting game.

I remember exactly when the lady from UMKC called me.  It was the last Friday in February—my birthday was on Monday.  I was up on my sorority wing because we were having initiation.  I don’t even know why I answered my phone when she called because usually I don’t answer when I don’t recognize the number.  But I did and she asked me if I had decided where I was going to law school. I explained that I hadn’t been accepted anywhere yet because I didn’t have a complete application because I was having a hard time getting a professor to turn in a letter of recommendation.  She said “oh let me be the first to congratulate you” and told me that I had been accepted and was being offered a couple of scholarships.  I was over the moon but took the weekend to think about it and talked it over with my folks, but ended up accepting the next week.

There are better law schools out that than UMKC but I really think I made the right decision for me.  It has been a really great place to go to school.  I’m not going to say that I enjoyed it all of the time, or even most of the time, because that wouldn’t be true.  But that is the nature of law school.  I am so glad that I did it but I am even more glad that I am done.  It has been really tough academically and emotionally.  I feel like I missed out on a lot of things because I was always having to study.  I know that one of these days, all that hard work will pay off though. 

The main thing I loved about UMKC was the people.  I made some really good friends over the past three years.  We laughed, studied, drank, procrastinated and complained together.  It seems like the elite law schools are all super competitive which would not have worked for me.  I needed to be in a place where someone would send me notes if I missed a class or explain something to me that I really just didn’t get. For me it is the people who really make experiences worthwhile and I couldn’t have spent the last three years with better people.

For today, I’m just going to enjoy the moment.  Enjoy being with all of the great friends I have made over the last three years.  In a few weeks I start 9 weeks of Bar prep, but for today I am just going to bask in the glow of my accomplishment.