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Nov

15

On wanting to be a lawyer after failing the bar exam five times


Not even John F. Kennedy, Jr. passed the NY bar until his third try – but I’m glad I checked because I thought it actually took him five tries. And I’m sure that there are plenty of others who took the exam multiple times before they passed it.

But here’s the thing: when I was studying for that mutha, the only thing that kept me going, and I mean, the only thing, was wanting to never, ever, ever, never have to take it again. That was it. I didn’t really care about anything else – I just did not want to have to ever sit for that sucker again. THAT was my motivation to study, follow the rules, pass it and be done.

And I did not like following the rules of how to answer law exam questions. Talk about having to play games the way the faculty wanted you to. HATED it. Hated, hated, hated. (Have I ever mentioned that I was told I was insubordinate in high school gym class? That I always got check minuses in citizenship in elementary school? That in sixth grade my favorite social studies teacher ever made me write hundreds of times, “I will not talk in class” on an unlined piece of 8.5 x 11 paper?)

Did you hear me kind of refuse to answer Dan Moulthrop today? That was fun, though, Dan. :)

But even with all those streaks of…shall we say…independence, I cannot understand why anyone wouldn’t kind of sort of get the clue that it’s just not meant to be if you’ve failed the bar exam five times.

Persistence, pursuing your dream – all good stuff. But being hit by a two-by-four, repeatedly, and then subjecting yourself to being hit by it?

That’s something else, which I won’t name. I need to retain my PG blog rating.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:05 pm November 15th, 2007 in Flip 

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