Law School Dreams and Bar Exam Nightmares

I was going through an old box of school stuff yesterday and I came across a couple Language Arts projects that I saved from my Freshman and Sophomore years. We had to write a personal statement of sorts as an intro to these projects...and apparently I had a change of heart and mind over the summer between 9th and 10th grade. "I decided I didn't want to study that hard and go to school that long." hahaha. I mean, I guess I wish I had trusted 16 yr old me. But instead I went with 15 yr old me. Who trusts the heart of a little Freshman girl? Dang it.

Right now I really really wish I would have changed my heart and mind for good that year. I am about 4 weeks away from the bar exam and every day I more seriously consider quitting and not going through with this whole thing. It's terrible. I feel defeated and completely incapable of passing this thing. Practice exams don't ever go well...and it's definitely not getting better with time. I know many of you that know me well are probably rolling your eyes and thinking I'm being dramatic because I'll "pull it out in the end," or that I "have nothing to worry about." But this is the worst I've ever felt about something in my life. Like, I don't even want to be an attorney anymore. My 16 yr-old self didn't even consider this part! I was only worried about studying and length of schooling. Oh...how cute.

I can say, though, that I think it's adorable that I accomplished all of my goals from when I was a wee little tot. Seriously, I can't remember ever wanting to be anything but an attorney (except I apparently wanted to be a stay-at-home mom for a sec...cute). As I read through my projects, there were two things that I wrote about consistently concerning my future: I was going to play college volleyball on scholarship, and I was going to go to law school. CHECK!! Man, I need to write more about my goals these days and maybe they will happen. I should write a personal statement talking about passing this dang bar exam. Maybe that will make it happen. Because, at this point, that's the only thing that's gonna work.

This summer blows. Pray for me.

Once Upon A Time I Went to Law School

Well, well, well...turns out, I GRADUATED FROM LAW SCHOOL! Last weekend is such a blur, and this week I have been so busy that I really never had a chance to let this all sink in. I still don't really believe that I am not going back to school in the fall. Maybe it will all hit me after the bar? I don't know. I have a million pictures...so I guess I will let the pictures catch everyone up. If you get bored, scroll to the bottom for an update on my life. (Not that much is going on, but some people still care, right?!). Okay...picture story:

Brenda graduated from her undergrad ARCH program this year, so we had the pleasure of attending TWO graduations on Saturday. UI graduation was at 9:30 that morning, then law school graduation was at 3 p.m. We had a long day. Taylor, our roommate, came to both as well. We're so nice.

We had a couple close friends graduating that morning as well. It was a big year, I guess.

These pics are actually AFTER my graduation ceremony. I walked my fam through the law school and we stopped to snap some pics along the way. I have grad-hat hair. How embarrassing.

In the court room. How professional.

Before the ceremony, we took a class picture in front of the law school. It was hot. Not the good-looking sort of hot, but the I'm-melting-in-my-grad-gear sort of hot. And those hoods? They choke you.

 

The actual ceremony was LONG...and HOT! But it was all very cute. (Lots of things in this post are "cute"...and I'm not sorry about it.)

Being hooded is awkward.

But then we have our hoods on and we're excited. See if you can find my face...I'm in the second row.

After the ceremony, we had a cute little gathering. Food. Drinks. Pictures. Laughter. You know, the usual.

Jessica is one of my closest friends from law school. She is off in Tennessee to take the bar. It will be so weird starting this whole "attorney" thing so far apart after going through this whole law school thing together!

We took our traditional YMCA photo with our "degree" (it was just a piece of paper with a note from the Dean...what a rip off).

This is an action shot of me telling Prof. Couture that her Negotiable Instruments final exam was NOT OKAY. She smiled and laughed like we were joking. We weren't.

The regulars from Torts Illustrated. A lot of intramurals were played with these two girls. I was one of three seniors at BSU when I finished my vball career...and here I am as one of three "seniors" finishing my law school intramurals career. Now THAT is cute.

I made some great friends in law school. Really, I did.

So...remember how I always wanted an older brother...but I had Elsina instead?! (Love you, Elsina). Well, I think I got to experience what an older brother is like...what multiple older brothers are like. I spent countless hours with these guys the past 3 years. We definitely ended up treating each other like family... thank goodness I was around to bring a woman's reasonableness to the discussions(arguments). It is going to be extremely weird to sit at a desk and not have these guys around me.

Action shot of me saying something funny. What's new?! I'm hilarious.

Action shot of someone else saying something funny. Weird.

My fam made the trip up to Moscow. Minus Elsina and Reed. Elsina is teaching math in SLC, and couldn't come...and Reed was "resting his legs" after his District track meet (he's awesome...I'll post those updates and pictures later). But it was great to have my little sisters and parents come see what my life was all about for the past three years.

SO...what's next? I don't have a lot of news on what is next in my life. I take the bar exam July 30 & 31 in Boise. I am home in Kuna for now. I will have a bar review course until mid-July, so I'm basically still in school for another couple months. Come August, I am hoping I will have a job in Boise, SLC, or Phoenix. There are a lot of possibilities right now. I was in Phoenix a couple days last week, meeting with a couple firms and visiting my cousins. And I have a few different things coming along in Boise. So right now it's all about passing the bar. The job thing will come. I don't know what or where...but I'm not worried about it.

Excited for my summer in Boise! Lots of fun, sunshine, volleyball, friends, and family. Can't complain. Except about studying for the bar. I can complain about that, I think.

Remember That One Time?

Oh yeah...I had a sweet Spring Break. I went to Cali with Brenda to visit her fam. Then we road tripped all over the state. It was intense. Enjoy some pics that illustrate:

Started the trip off in sorta-matching outfits. For the record: I got dressed first!! 

Drove to Sacramento. Spent time with the Gomez fam and played in Old Sac.

Then we drove to LA. We stayed with a few of Brenda's good friends. And we went to Disney Land.

Then we spent a day with her friend that is the Project Manager for the architect and team building a sweet mansion.

We also ran into some celebs on the Santa Monica Pier. Chatted with them and the rest of their fam for a few minutes. We're basically BFFs.

Then we spent a night in SLO...Brenda's mansion friend joined us. Tanya is da bomb. She got us a sweet deal at a hotel right on Pismo Beach. Then we enjoyed the sunshine all afternoon. By the ocean. Whatevs.

We then drove to San Francisco. We stayed with one of my best friends from high school. (Remember Sam...went on a cruise with her after BSU graduation). We walked all over San Fran...and sped across the Golden Gate Bridge in her 2013 Mustang GT. NBD.

 We went an a cool boat tour. "Shane the Pain" told us it would be 30 minutes. It ended up being an hour because we stopped to watch the sun set behind the Golden Gate Bridge. We also cruised around Alcatraz. Pretty cool.

Then we drove back to Sacramento and stayed another couple days with Bdawg's fam. And went back to Old Sac for some more salt water taffy. Duh.

It was very exhausting...but it was a good way to spend the last spring break of my life. *SIGH* I don't want to be a grown up.

Bday, Missions, and My Future

Oh hey...I turned 26. Weird? Yeah. Really weird. I feel like it was just yesterday that I turned the BIG 1 - 6. But alas, it was TEN years ago. TEN!! 26 has so much to offer me...and I'm hoping that offer includes a job and a new place to live. Either way, I'm graduating law school. Putting the stamp on finishing school. Forever. That's enough for now.

I celebrated my bday a day early in Moscow. Above is a pic of the girls that joined me for my bday dinner. The boys were in charge of taking the picture I guess. Below is a pic of me in my decorated room. There were balloons all over...every 26 year old needs lots of balloons.

THEN, on my actual birthday, I drove home so that I could spend the weekend with my fam. As I've mentioned, both Malea and Charles are going on missions. And, folks, the time has come. The two of them spoke this afternoon and they are leaving Wednesday morning for the MTC. I am going to miss them so so much. Luckily I kept it together saying goodbye to them after church, but I sorta cried the whole way back to my house. Oops. I was doing SO good through Sacrament Meeting...I just couldn't hold it together when I drove away. We had such a good weekend: partying with bday dessert, cheering on Reed and Kevin at their bball game (they were both all-stars, by the way...Ericsons hittin 3 pointers like Jimmer...well...almost like Jimmer), and then squeezing into two full rows for church today. We are so blessed to have such an amazing family. And we were SO happy Mallory came up from Rexburg to join us!!

So this, right here, is our LAST Doug/Carl fam cousin picture with all of us together until 2017-ish. Our cousin pictures have been frequent and we are rarely missing a cousin (sometimes we're missing Elsina, and we missed Bryce on his mission for a couple years). Now there will be overlapping missions for about 4 years. Ahhhh!! So soak it in, folks.

Other than celebrating my day of birth and saying farewell to my dear cousins, I am just truckin along in my LAST SEMESTER OF LAW SCHOOL!! Man, it's hard to care about school at all. I am currently working on my BAR EXAM APPLICATION. (are all of these capital letters making you excited? it's working for me). I'll be sending that off in a couple weeks. I decided on taking the Idaho Bar. Whether or not I end up here is still up in the air. I can transfer my score to any other state that offers the Uniform Bar Exam, so there is still a chance of moving to a brand new location. We shall see. Lots of unknowns right now, but oddly enough, I'm not stressing out too much. I'm excited for whatever is coming. And I'm enjoying my last semester. A lot. 

Life is great! (and seriously, if any of you out there reading this want to employ me after the bar exam, sign me up).

Why hello blog...

I'm writing a new blog post! Must be a special occasion. Like......maybe the new year? Or the fact that I'm down to ONE more semester of law school? Or maybe because I haven't blogged in, like, forever? Whatever...here I am.

First, let's do a super quick, pretty lame, but informative semester-in-review:

1. I did a week-long course before the official semester started where I learned (well...sorta) how to go through a trial. At the end of the week, we did a mock trial and spent the better part of an entire day in "court." Basically, I realized I can totally do that for real someday. I mean, it was fake, so it wasn't that scary...but at least I know the prep and logistics. I'm totally adult enough for that. I think.

2. National Moot Court was an enjoyable challenge for the most part. I was on a team with two fellow 3Ls. We got through writing a brief with three people...which is a lot more difficult than writing a brief by yourself believe it or not. We had three two-hour practices a week leading up to competition. We were good. Like, really good. Unfortunately, a round of old-geezer judges that thought they knew what they were talking about, but didn't, scored us a point lower than our opponent in the regional quarter-final round. It was a really, really, massive bummer. But the positive: I don't have to put any more time into it this semester since we are not going to Nationals. Hmm.

3. I totally snagged TWO intramural champion t-shirts! No, I didn't steal them...I won them. My team and I were the champs of a 3v3 sand volleyball tournament, and also the 6s indoor volleyball season. Booyah! Our intramural flag football team and 3v3 bball team came away with "Runner-Up"...which we got nothing for...so big whoop. BUT...our 3L flag football team won the law school tournament AGAIN! Rarely do classes win back-to-back, but we sure did. 

4. Otherwise, I spent my time avoiding schoolwork, staying away from the law school, and generally just partyin it up as much as one can in Moscow, Idaho (well...let me rephrase that...as much as one nice Mormon girl can). Trying to make the most of my time left with my roommates and my classmates that will be lifelong friends.

 

(I clearly don't know how to edit this little blog to fix the placement of those pictures...sorry for those of you who are OCD and don't want to look at that mess...it's surely buggin me, but I can't fix it)

5. Tried not to fail my finals. Yep, that was my only criteria. I have adopted this "I don't really care" attitude, and let me tell you...it is fantastic. Living through finals with minimal stress and lots of free time was so refreshing. I might change my mind when I see my grades and get some C's...but C's get degrees, and that's pretty much all I want right now. Oh...and a job...I want a job too. I love any one of you forever and ever if you find me one. Seriously.

Okay, okay...so now a quick blah blah blah about my other life. The one outside of Moscow.

My cousins Malea and Charles got their mission calls. These cousins are more like siblings to me because we've grown up in Kuna together. We spend every holiday together. We have family dinners together. We celebrate birthdays together. We go to events together. We go to church together. You get the idea. It is so sad to see two of them go at once, but I am so so excited for them!! We have been trying to party extra hard before they go.

My cousin Brooke also got her mission call! All three are going to Spanish-speaking missions in Central and South America. I'm going to do some Rosetta Stone to be fluent by the time they get back.

We've had lots of fun this Christmas Break. Elsina and Bryce spent Christmas in Idaho with us this year. Luckily Bryce likes the Mighty Ducks, so he was alright with our tradition of watching the series three nights in a row. He even got in on some NBA Jam Super Nintendo action...an Ericson favorite.

We also had another cousin and his wife here, and his parents. So it was a big Ericson Christmas. And of course I LOVE that. We partied with some Minute-To-Win-It challenges. Even the old-folk got in on it!

 
 

(once again...I don't know what I'm doing in terms of where these pics go)

My family is great. And hilarious. It has been a GREAT break, and while I am dreading my return to school, I am excited to get back and FINISH law school!! Ahhhh!!