So this is late and I apologize.  I am trying something different here.  Mike Triforce is still my hero, but I am going to stray a little bit and try and actually answer Benito’s question, which was simply…why?  Alpha Man clarified.  “Why, with everything you’ve been exposed to as part of this blog, would you borrow more money and go to law school, particularly a third tier law school?”  The Mike Triforce answer is easy.  I am going to make it, despite how many people have failed, and I want the BMW driving, bottles and models, JD-Just DOllaZ lifestyle.  Please don’t get me wrong I do.  But if I am really honest that’s not it, that’s not even 50% of it.  The reason I applied to law school and plan on attending is because of the way it makes me feel.

Please read on as I try to explain what I am experiencing, and how I believe that translates into the “average” undergrad or young person.

Again, please be nice, I am going out on a limb here.  Now, I am not bipolar or anything, but I do experience highs and lows.  The lows come when the reality of spending seven years in college, only earning a BA, and being constantly unemployed or underemployed is focused through the lense of not evening knowing what I want for my life because certain basic needs, companionship for instance, are not met.  You need to be able to sleep before you can dream.  The highs come when I overcompensate for this knowledge by wanting everything from life and gravitating towards individuals who claim to be able to give it to me, hence how I met Mike Triforce.  Print this out because I will never admit this when I am sober or fully drunk.  This is four beers tipsy.

But enough about me.  When a kid gets good grades in high school they feel special.  Society, particularly individuals they look up to, reinforce this.  Then a kid gets into a good college and they feel special again.  They do well in school and yes, there is that feeling of approval or if they have slipped a little, at least blending in with their peers who are overachieving or giving the appearance of overachieving.  Then you get to the end of college.  You look at your job prospects.  It is not about the money.  There are plenty of jobs (clerking for a judge, medical resident, research assistant for a famous professor, white house intern…) that don’t pay well.  But they are prestigious and they make one feel special.  Nothing fits the bill. 

So what do you do?  You apply to law school of course.  Sure, if you’re in certain communities you realize the folly of such a choice.  But the world at large is utterly unfamiliar with the legal world, taking notice only when a Supreme Court case or nomination graces the front page of the paper…or a celebrity gets themselves in trouble.  And it’s the opinion of the world at large, where you live and breathe, that one tends to care about.  Then you get in and loans and crappy job prospects aside, you feel special. 

Law school has plenty of opportunities to feel special: Law Review, Moot Court, Research assistance – but even if you fail in all these endeavors you can at least blend in given the grade curve and a few well placed lies to your peers.  Plus deep down, if you fail (and you do admit this possibility to yourself) you would have failed in the real world anyway without the degree.  Why not put off the real world for three more years?  Think of it like treating terminal cancer.  Death and perpetual unemployment have this in common: they are pretty much forever.

So that’s why I did it.  To feel special.  I know that sounds lame.  I hope Mike Triforce doesn’t read this.  And I hope nobody has figured out who I am.