Status Quo

Time for a happy blog update!

Well, not happy, but, maybe less dramatic?

Anyway, so, it's Monday again and I'm taking a small breather before going balls out with my contract notes and outlines. And criminal law, too. And...yeah, you catch the drift.

I start out my days by getting up at 7:30 with the iHome blaring "Me and Bobby McGee" or "Morning Mood". I'm out of the house by 7:55 and at the bus stop ten minutes later.

Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen, well, Mondays I start out with CivPro.

First day, I got back home and was like, 'Hey, this stuff's pretty interesting."

Next day, I was like, "MY MIND IS FULL OF FUCK"

I'm going to have to really buckle down if I'm going to come close to getting something resembling a grasp on the subject.

CivPro flows into Torts I, which is basically civil law suits. It's a tough class but manageable if you're always several cases ahead, but God help you if you say "I'm confused." That shit don't fly. It's fun, though. The professor is very challenging but very approachable, too.

On Mondays and Wednesdays I have LRW. LRW sort of complements CivPro in the sense that they form the frijoles and tortillas of what we'll be doing as lawyers eventually...but CivPro is 4 credits and Legal Research and Writing is 2 credits. Don't know why that is.

Then the other two classes, on Tuesday and Thursday, are Criminal Law and Contracts. Both are taught by very passionate professors that know how to get the class laughing...and studying.

The classes are hard, though. I can easily say I've worked more in two weeks than I have in three years of an undergraduate. I originally thought, well...I did come from a liberal arts background so it would be a given, but then I realized that some of my peers who came from science and business fields were saying the same thing. Law school's proving to be the great equalizer.

As far as my brain goes...I come home from class and I'm as tired as I was when I pulled my 12-hour school/work shifts at UTB/TSC, and I only have, at most, three classes a day! :O There's just sooooo much learning to be done. It's almost as if I have a headache going on every time I come back home, but it doesn't hurt, but it's an odd feeling. I feel the mechanisms in my head retooling themselves as the legal education begins to set in.

I feel that I have to look at words more carefully. Even simple words like "promise" have different meanings that could fill up three or four pages. When I go out and stuff, I think in law school terms and I'm sure my classmates do the same thing. Just the other day my friend called me up to ask me for help moving a couch, the question was phrased not as "Hey, what're you doing Friday? I need some help." but as something like..."Would you be willing to forbear your legal right to free time after school on Friday in exchange for a free meal?"

I might start sounding like that, too. I am now even more aware about the things I say and the things I write. One word can make all the difference.

Going back to school stuff, I really like my colleagues (can't call them classmates). They're from all walks of life and all parts of the state and country. I think I've mentioned that before. Cliques have formed but I'm shying away from them. Yeah, I have people I hang out with, but class cliques...bleh, not my style. I'm polite and respectful to everyone (stop laughing, I am!) that I encounter because, well, you just never know.

Though, funny thing, some of my law school buddies, a few days after we began bonding, we were studying and then we decided to tell each other what each other's first impressions of the other were. Two of them agreed that I was some rich, arrogant, Mexican boy because of the way I confidently spoke and carried myself in class.

Two pet peeves, though:

1. NO ONE SAYS SAN JACINTO LIKE IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE SAID. It's been like four or five times already that I get on the bus and the following conversation takes place:

Me: Hi, San Jacinto and Polk, please.
Bus Driver: Where?
Me: San Jacinto and Polk.
Bus Driver: Where, again?
Me: San Jacinto street, you know, downtown? Next to Fannin?
Bus Driver: OH! Sin Ja-seen-toe!
Me: yeah.

2. People really don't respect pedestrians in downtown. I mean, seriously, you guys. THE WHITE MONITO MEANS I HAVE THE RIGHT TO USE THE CROSSWALK AND YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS INVADING IT.

I've met one celebrity already, too. Sister Helen Prejean. She is the author of 'Dead Man Walking' and a very talented speaker...even if she spent a little too much time plugging her new play. I saw her speak during an n inter-faith (or rather, inter-Christian and one rabbi) conference at Hobby Center that I was helping usher in. Pretty cool stuff.

Oh, and another thing, people seem to be very nice here. The other day I was at a bar, and someone accidentally bumped into me. They said sorry, and excuse me right after that. And then when I bumped into someone a bit later in another bar, they said, excuse me, too. You don't get that kind of civility back home at certain establishments. If you go to say, the bar, and you're trying to move through the crowd, you're invisible to everyone else. By invisible I mean that people will try and walk through you, and then suddenly become very temporarily aware that there is another slob of matter in front of them. Then they just push past the obstruction without so much as a glance.

To close, I'd like to say I've had a lot of fun in Houston and MMMM SKYSCRAPER I LOVE YOU.

Now, on to sleep...

"It's not about you anymore"

Not sure how to start this off, but I'll give it my best.

This is a whole different animal I'm facing. I finally figured out my bus routes (yay) and I'm considering keeping a running .doc somewhere about the interesting people I meet on my way to downtown Houston.

Law school officially started on Wednesday, but there were two days of orientation before that, and orientation could be summed up in the words of one of my professors:

"It's not about you anymore."

It was in an introductory speech at the beginning of orientation and the phrase stuck with me.

I'd say the phrase is a little bit bittersweet.

I was no longer a child. I was on my own. I had left the Valley and the comfort of home far behind.

I was free.

But what is this freedom?

Freedom, to me, was not the opportunity to go wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted, to do whatever I wanted to whoever I wanted.

Freedom for me was the freedom of choice. The freedom to choose to break the chains of my past and bind myself with the chains of my future. The minute I swore, on my honor, that oath of professionalism, was the minute that my life stopped being about me entirely.

2010 was the year I had to be selfish, the year I could have turned my back on my new path, the year I could have completely squandered. But I stuck by it, and I still had a chance to back out when South Texas came a-calling, but I didn't, and I never intended to.

Orientation was basic training, and law school is going to be my own personal World War, a war that I volunteered for because I know that it was the best way to reach what I was destined for.

And what was I destined for?

Service.

Not a lot of people know about this, but, years ago in my first missions trip, I asked God what He wanted from me. It was there in that hillside, an hour away from civilization, that I heard the mountains tremble and move and a voice inside me said: "Be a leader."

What better way to be a leader than by serving others?

It's not about me anymore because every minute I spend in class today will be spent with one eye focusing on my notes and the other eye looking three years from now at the client who will be sitting in front of me.

Now, law school itself...really hard to explain. It's challenging, it's interesting, it's stimulating, it's cut-throat, but the faculty and staff are willing to help out and fellow students are awesome as well.

:>

It's not just about me anymore. It's about those who I left behind, and those that will come in the future.

First days in Houston

So far, so good.

I still need to dick around with the bus schedules, but other than that, I'm ready to go.

Just that. Not excited, not nervous, not scared, just ready.

And, looking at the syllabus from two of my courses, I need to be ready.

Hard part's getting the body used to waking up early. Hopefully by Sunday I'll have a more normal rhythm going on.

As to the city itself, well, what can I say?

It's diverse. TRUE diversity. I'm not awestruck by it, given the fact I've spent a fair enough time in Houston already and noticed how everything is, BUT now I'm looking at the city through the eyes of a resident. I'm no longer just crashing here for a day or two while visiting friends. I live here now, and that puts a spin on things.

Off to kill some time and enjoy my last breaths of free air before marching off to war.

Why the BCS and the NCAA are the most ethical and fair sports governing authority in the world

Actually, they're not, but when you compare FIFA to the BCS, the BCS is run by saints.

I mean, really.

NCAA is inconsistent with its punishments, and when it actually punishes people, it does so for the most stupid things (students selling their own jerseys is a huge no-no, apparently). The BCS obviously favors the big-name conferences and big-name schools. People talk about strength of schedule, but Oregon's in the championship game, and their SoS is only marginally better (by maybe one team) than Boise State's. The ACC get an automatic bid and their best team these last couple of years is more inconsistent than the value of the Mexican peso. The Big East gets an automatic bid and I'm confident that team for team, the MWC and C-USA could run roughshod over that conference.

It's all about money. It's all about TV deals. Notre Dame is also a BCS-qualifying team and they've been at BEST mediocre these last few years.

It's all bout money!

But no matter how many schools and students get gipped by the NCAA or by the BCS...they're still pinnacles of ethics and integrity compared to FIFA.

FIFA is corrupt. FIFA is broken. FIFA is a Europhile organization more interested in filling the coffers of a select few people than it is about making World Cups enjoyable, or hell, making football in general enjoyable. It's been happening for awhile.

2002 had the worst refereeing EVER (even worse than 2010), 2006 let the cheating and diving Italian team get past Australia (clearest instance) in a dive worthy of Olympic gold.

On the road to 2010, you had the French get into the World Cup with a handball that Ray Charles could've seen from his grave.

During 2010, oh man, so many instances- Coulibaly denying the U.S. a clear goal, the referees at the England-German and Mexico-Argentina playoffs (Mexico also got a goal stolen from them in the opener against the host country), Paraguay magically not getting booked in their 1st round game against Japan even though they confused football with kickball, etc.

And FIFA allowed it. Referees weren't suspended, and the only people that were barred from the stadiums were a group of very attractive Dutch cheerleaders because they were advertising Bavaria, a beer that directly competes with Budweiser, the official FIFA beer of the World Cup.

The only justice in the cup came when both Italy and France were granted early exits from the cup, thanks to Mexico and Slovakia.

And JUST when you have hope for the future, JUST when you think that maybe, just maybe, FIFA will repent and not do something mind-numbingly stupid...

Russia and Qatar are selected as the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts.

Again...what the hell?

You think that FIFA would have learned the lesson with South Africa when it comes to having host nations that a) are perennially underwhelming teams and b) don't have the facilities for it.

Let's talk about Russia first.

WHAT'S IN FRICKING RUSSIA?

Seriously. Why there?

Repressive government? Check.

Mafia ties? Check.

Tourism? Boring.

Russia, in its entirety, is pretty. It has nice forests and lakes, and...well, what else? Just like South Africa. There was NOTHING there. FIFA wants to give it to a country that never had it before and that's fine, but make sure that people will want to go. Even if I lived in Europe, I'd think twice about taking a train to Central Russia. Give to SPAIN/PORTUGAL! They were second in the bidding, have better stadiums and better cities to be at in the summer! Really.

BEACHES, PEOPLE!

BEACHES.

SUMMER TIME.

BEACHES.

Belgium/The Netherlands was also a likely contender, but it'd have been a possible repeat of Germany 2006. And England, wow, I really feel bad for them, they had the infrastructure, but not the team. I'd be willing to bet money that England will not even qualify for the 2018 World Cup, and after the way they played in the WC, I don't think they deserve to, either.

And they have proud teams, too. I hate the Portuguese crybabies as much as any honest, God-fearing man, but they field a good team. So does Spain, even though if you look closely, it's actually the Catalunya national team. Russia...not so much. The Soviet Union USED to be a good team, but the Russian Federation, let's see...since 1994, they've qualified for two cups, and exited in the group stage in both World Cups. Mexico may not be the best team in any given World Cup, but at least we've reached the knockout stage, and at least we've tried and gone down swinging.

Will the host country get out of the group stage in this World Cup?

South Africa was not so lucky (neither were the rest of the African teams).

Now let's talk 2022.

When I say Qatar, you think desert, you think oil, and you think Middle East.

"World Cup" is probably not something you think about, unless you're thinking of a sentence like the "Why the hell is Qatar hosting the World Cup?"

That's a question I asked myself, too, when one of my friends texted me saying that FIFA pulled the greatest troll ever and I realized what had happened.

First, let's talk location.

Qatar.

You're playing in the 100+ degree-weather in the middle of summer in the desert, in stadiums that haven't been built.

Really?

If anyone out there thinks oil money had nothing to do with it, let me know, because there's a bridge in New York I'd like to sell you. FIFA should have looked away from the piles of oil money and looked at things as they were: It won't be an accessible World Cup. WHO WANTS TO GO TO THE DESERT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SUMMER? If it's winter, I'm not thinking, "Well, gee, I'm sure being in Siberia right now would be just peachy!"

SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS.

Last I checked, the region wasn't exactly very stable. Qatar is one of the more progressive countries in the Middle East, but that's not saying a lot. It's still ruled by a single monarch and its laws are theist laws.

FIFA is asking for trouble, and I'm not even talking about terrorism, because as far as that goes, Qatar hasn't exactly been a hotbed for terrorism. But still an area controlled by Islamic law suddenly flooded with fans from Latin America and from Europe won't be very stable for long. And let's just say that Europe hasn't exactly had friendly relationships with the Muslim world this last decade. If there's 'outfit rules' at stadiums, FIFA might well have on its hands a bloody riot.

Some could argue that holding the World Cup in Rio is also highly unstable but...it's Brazil. I think that the violence in the favelas will be placed on pause for that entire month and then resume afterwards.

But people would at least want to go to Brazil, I'm sure.

And as far as the Qatari team....IT HAS NEVER EVEN GONE TO A WORLD CUP. South Africa's not the greatest team and not the best team in Africa, but they've gone to World Cups before it was their turn at least, and even though they've never made it to the knockout stage, their performance has been decent.

Qatar is ranked 16th in its conference and 113th in the FIFA rankings. Let me tell you who else is on that list:

1. Australia

2. Japan

3. South Korea

4. Iran

5. Saudi Arabia

6. Bahrain

7. China

8. Jordan

9. Oman

10. Iraq

11. UAE

12. Kuwait

13. Uzbekistan

14. Best Korea

15. Syria

16. Qatar

Outside the top 3, do any of those countries scream 'football powerhouse' ? Nope.

You could argue the same thing about CONCACAF, but CONCACAF, in comparison, is much smaller, AND half its members are tiny little islands.

It's going to be a slaughter, but I know FIFA's going to find a way to get Qatar at least some goals.

Football-wise, I don't see it happening. No matter what conference you can name, if the team's in the top 8, they would slaughter the Qataris on the pitch.

The United States was a much better choice. They have the stadiums, they have the great summer weather, they have the sights, they had everything. Even if football is not big in the United States, those stadiums would have been FULL. 'Soccer' is a steadily growing sport, and by the time 2022 rolls around, a lot more kids would have decided that football wasn't the best choice when you can do a lot more as a soccer player WITHOUT the average career lifespan of 4-5 years (and post-career pain for about 50 years). At the rate the NHL is going, I foresee a near future where it becomes a niche sport and soccer replaces it and makes inroads into the ground held by basketball and football.

Another thing, who DOESN'T want to come to the United States?

Attendance won't be an issue, 'things to do' will not be an issue, TV viewing would not have been an issue, but no..FIFA dropped the ball (ha) essentially flicking a huge middle finger to the United States.

It sucks, it really does. I love soccer/football with a passion. It's a sport I grew up in, it's a sport I can actually play (recreationally), it's a sport I breathe, and I wanted that cup to be held in the United States because it would have been awesome to go see a game, ANY game, at Texas Stadium.

But sigh.

FIFA, I am disappoint.

There's two things I can honestly hope for:

1. That Israel qualifies for the 2022 World Cup and gets further in the tournament than Qatar does.

2. Blatter and Platini have nothing do with the selection, and the new chair realizes that the stadiums are not built on time and no matter how much the Sheiks have paid FIFA, Qatar can't host the cup and the United States has to be activated on short notice, which the U.S is perfectly able to do.

sigh.

In which our hero muses about luck, eagles, blessings, and law school.

What is luck?

Is it some sort of divine construct, or a divine vassal of that fairest mistress of all: chance?

Or do we make our own?

I went up to South Texas College of Law earlier this week. It was my first time visiting the school in over a year, and I got a more complete tour this time, and I was amazed at how much stuff can fit into a building. Classrooms, seminars, and a huge library that has areas to study for every type of student. I saw the cloister-like windowless rooms popular at UT-B, as well as more open areas kissed by appropriate amounts of sunlight. My favorite part? The little park right outside the sixth floor. It's a big balcony with trees and tables, with a view to the downtown Houston skyline.

Oh man, I can't wait.

But I started out talking about luck, so here's where it starts to come in. My tour guide (who probably had better things to do at the admissions office) told me that the Spring 2011 entering class had ninety students, which is four times less than the Fall 2010 entering class.

Ninety students.

When I chose to reapply to South Texas College of Law, I applied with a little hesitation. Law schools that take Spring admission are few and far between, and of the five or six that do take Spring Admission, only two were realistic possibilities for me: Baylor and South Texas.

But I got in. I was one of 90 students that got into a competitive law school in a competitive semester.

Luck? Nah. I deserved AND earned that spot.

When I finished with the things I had to do with the financial aid office, I headed back downstairs to the lobby, where there's an entire wall with framed pictures of the faculty, their universities, and a little quote that they like.

One of them had the following quote:

Though youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
those who hope in the LORD
shall renew their strength.
They shall mount upon wings like eagles;
they shall run and not grow weary,
they shall walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:30-31

It just so happens that that quote is one of my favorite quotes from the Bible (granted, the version I like better says 'they shall soar upon wings like eagles' but the meaning is the same). Another interesting thing about this quote is that the morning that I received my LSAT scores, I had updated my facebook status to read: "He raised me up, on eagle's wings."
Because He did. He's raised me up, and raised my family up. I am very thankful for this.

One of the comments from my friends read simply: Isaiah 40:31, and ever since that moment, part of the passage has rested neatly and openly on my facebook profile.

Lucky coincidence?

I believe I am blessed. Some call these blessings luck, and some would call this luck a blessing.

In cases like this, I consider myself blessed to be lucky AND lucky to be blessed.

I've faced a lot of disappointments this year, but everything happens for a reason. My living arrangements, for example. I was lucky that my friend Leo had cousins attending South Texas College of Law, I was luckier still that they were able to find a 'roommate wanted' flyer on campus, and I was even luckier that said person needed a roommate for that precise semester.

And lucky me, he's a pretty cool guy, too, and a semester ahead of me in the same law school.

I have a lot to be thankful for, and I vow that my thanksgiving to all those who supported me will be expressed through my own success in law school and beyond.

I know my blog posts are sometimes lofty and laced with optimism that doesn't seem to mesh well with the fierce nature of what law school IS as compared to what I think it is...but, I don't care.

I know I'm going to suffer.

I know there'll be times I'll feel like giving up.

I know that it won't be very peachy when the stress piles up, especially with a smaller, more competitive class.

I know that I will be far from home and to an extent withdrawn from friends and family.

But I welcome that. I welcome it with open arms because I know how close I was to rotting in mediocrity. I stared at the abyss long enough to realize that no matter how much a final or a particular class may affect me, it's nothing compared to the nightmares I would have faced if I hadn't gotten into law school. I know that it'll all be worth it when I start working.

Road to Law School Part II

I could have given up. I entertained the thought.

But imagine?

What kind of coward turns his back on his dream, on his calling, on his duty?

Despite my constant drive for self-improvement and self-fulfillment, there's a lot of things I regret about my past. I could have played more sports, I could have gotten much better grades in college and in high school.

Could have. Would have. Should have. Didn't.

That had to stop.

I was an adult now. I had to man up and say, "No, you know what, I'm NOT going to back down from this. I WANT this."

And thus began the Summer of my Discontent.

I was too proud to go back to school and start work on another pre-law academy or a master's program as a "safe" alternative in case things didn't work out.

So I decided to work on taking my third LSAT.

It was back to square one. Yes, I remembered the lessons from the pre-law academy, but I needed another whetstone to sharpen what I had learned.

Enter Powerscore. If you're thinking about taking the LSAT and do not want to go through the Kaplan-UTB pre-law academy, try Powerscore. It worked wonders because, while Kaplan is great, theb ooks when it's stand-alone. Powerscore puts the power in your hands by going into real deep details about the problems on the LSAT.

And yet, it was all me. I had the support of my family, my friends, but I was the one doing the studying.

With my parents at work and my brother at school, there was no one to tell me during the day, “Hey, it’s time to study!” or “Hey, you’ve only studied for two hours today, you’re slacking!”

I had to do all by myself. During the summer and on through August and September.

If I went out, I felt guilty. If I didn’t study four hours a day, I felt guilty. My dreams were LSAT dreams. It was madness, but it was a hole I dug myself into, and it was a hole I was going to have to crawl out, a gritos y a sombrerazos.

And then it was time to take the LSAT. The LSAT, simply put, was a harrowing experience I don’t EVER want to go through again. With other big-name tests, such as the SAT, the ACT, and even the tough ones like the MCAT or PCAT, you’re tested on shit you should have an idea about already. Not only that, but generally speaking, if you’re taking the MCAT or PCAT, you have (usually) a good foundation as an undergraduate in scientific related fields.

There’s none of that in the LSAT.

There is no “LSAT major” that gives you a foundation for the test. I had originally thought that those who majored in philosophy had an edge over those that majored in something else, but that wasn’t true. During our Kaplan sessions, the first thing the instructor asked was “How many of you have a background in philosophy?” Five people raised their hands. The next thing he said was, “Alright, forget everything you ever learned. It won’t apply here.”

You’re essentially going up against a test you can only prepare so much for, and what you can prepare for is only a small bit of what you’ll get. Powerscore and Kaplan both tell you what you might expect and what the LSAT makers might do in the test.

And the test.

I don’t ever want to take that damn test again. For many reasons:

1. Anxiety attacks are common. Up to that point I had never, ever, gone through one, but as I was finishing my last section, I panicked. Bad. Luckily, I kept my wits about me and finished the section and only allowed myself to give in to the panic after I had left the testing room. Once I did, though, the anxiety hit me pretty bad. I had trouble breathing, thinking, even driving. I made it back home in one piece (even though I ended up near Corpus for a brief period).

2. Every second counts. Your mind starts playing games with you if you take longer than the forty seconds to answer a question (logical reasoning) or eight minutes, 45 seconds to complete part of the reading comp or a logic game. And by playing games, I don’t mean “Oh, haha, you might have missed the previous two questions, after all, it’s totally B, not C!” I mean: “In all likelihood, you missed the last five questions, and they were in the easy-intermediate section. That means your pillow is gone in the last section. In other words, you probably will tank this section and you will tank the test. If you tank the test, that’s it. You’re doomed to a couple of years of mediocrity in the Valley.” This is terror. It makes C'tulhu look like a cup of ice cream on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I literally saw my future crumble to ashes in front of me. This is not a very happy feeling. Oh, and for weeks before and weeks after, I would wake up in the morning in cold sweat, thinking that it was October 2nd, 2010, and I was running late for the test. These feelings would subside eventually, and I would eventually learn to accept God's will in this matter.

3. UTPA is not the most conducive place to test. It’s great if you’re a UTPA student and actually know where everything is, but if you’re not, you’re pretty much reduced to guesswork (unless you had scouted the place beforehand). All the buildings look the same, there's no signs pointing you to the room, and unless you're first in line, you will be seated at a higher level than someone else in the testing room.

a. The testing rooms…those were bleh.

Everything worked out, though, praise God. I received my test results on Halloween morning at College Station. My score would prove to be enough to get me into South Texas College of Law, one of the law schools I had enamored myself with last year.

And that, as they say, is that.

Road to Law School

Long post ahead!

Why lawyering?

Why not?

That's how it started. A question asked by one of my mentors one day over lunch at u-mIx.

"Have you ever thought about becoming a lawyer?"

Before that, I hadn't.

I had thought about becoming a veterinarian, a rock star, a pro athlete, a writer and a journalist.

All those things got shut down when I realized I couldn't bear to see animals suffer, I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, I'm about as athletic as JaMarcus Russell (without the paycheck), it's taking forever to write a novel and as a reporter...well, it wasn't for me.

So, I decided to try this law thing. Made sense to everyone. Where else did Eagleheart stand a chance at making a career out of arguing with people?

I started with the pre-law academy headed by Dr. Betancourt (UH Law Center '94) at UT-Brownsville in the summer of '09. For those of you considering law school or law, this is a great place to start. It's a month-long course in the summer, divided as follows:

First two weeks:

A single LSAT preptest at the beginning, then there's talks with lawyers, law students who are in town for the summer and judges spread out around the two weeks along with visits to the courthouses. Then there's mock law school classes taught by Dr. Betancourt, homework assigned, et cetera.

Second two weeks:

The University has a deal with Kaplan, who provides LSAT tutoring and books for the next two weeks under the guidance of one of their tutors. There's not as much law school talk here as there is LSAT talk, which...you need to get into law school.

Overall, a great course, and you come out of it either wanting to keep on a law school path or thinking that you will never ever have anything to do with it ever again.

Does it work? Yes, if you wanted to go to law school.

11 people took the course, 5 ended up taking the LSAT afterwards. Of those five, 2 got into UT Austin, 1 got into South Texas College of Law for the Fall, and one of them (me), would eventually get accepted into South Texas College of Law for the Spring.

At this point you're thinking, wait, if you took the LSAT afterwards, how comes you didn't get in for Fall or even Spring 2010?

Well, there's a story to that.

I thought I was a big shot. I did. I had survived an AP test in high school and had been doing alright at my normal tests. Not to mention I was an awesome sports editor (and would eventually get the awards to prove it), I was about to graduate and needed to party. I studied, yeah, but I didn't study as hard as I should have...and I paid the price.

I had even visited South Texas College of Law in November of 2009 and SMU in February of 2010 and I totally saw myself walking through those halls as a law student.

I received my first rejection notice, from Baylor, in February. I was sad, but I said, I'm not going to mope. My applications for my top choices were still out, I had the opportunity to spend a month in Spain and audit some classes at the University of Granada and at the same time study European laws, which are very...different from ours. Better in some senses, worse in others.

Then I got back and the rejections started coming in. UH Law Center and St. Mary's sent me denial letters the day I got back. Life still had to go on, though, and I took a job as a volunteer paralegal with South Texas ProBar. I'm thrilled that I had the chance to work here, and it was a challenge...some of the stuff I had to listen to and work on, as well as the places I had to work at wasn't that easy to handle. But I managed, and it was then that I really knew that law was for me.

Epiphanies aside, throughout my time there I learned a lot, but I was also getting more and more rejections. South Texas College of Law was the fourth school to deny me admission for the spring semester, and it was a big blow because I had my heart and mind set on going to law school in Houston. I kept up the work, and then...the last two rejections came in.

At that point, I realized I was not going to get into law school in the fall.

To be continued...