The Road To My Future In Law

In the last unit of the Endurance course, we looked into how survivors of an endurance battle came out on the other side. We looked into how they managed to get through and how they were able to come out alive on the other side. For the Action Project, we had to look at our own missions and goals and come up with a survival guide. I chose to take a path in law so I looked into the different things that go along with my mission. It was very difficult come up with some of the parts of the project. I am very proud of the way my project came out and I hope you enjoy. 

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Why?

In my life, I hope to one day change the world. I want to be able to say once I am old that I was able to make a difference in the world. By becoming a lawyer, I will be able to do my best to make sure that no one will be treated unfairly. I really want to be able to not only change someone else’s life as well as my own. I know that with being lawyer I will be able to live comfortably and happy. I think that I have started my journey already by being able to shadow my uncle and see what life would be like. I hope to become someone that can happily say that they help others rather than just helping ourselves.

Lay of the Land

In order for me to become a lawyer, I would need to complete 7 years of study after high school. 4 years of undergraduate studies followed by 3 years of law school (My Future. N.D.). I will be attending University of Dayton for my undergraduate studies. For the 4 years I am there, I will have to take many classes in order to prepare me for the 3 years of law school that follow it. The legal profession requires basic knowledge of the government, as well as its history and processes. Courses in these subjects are advised, so I will have some understanding of the topics before you begin law school. These courses are usually reading-intensive, which is also great preparation for law school. The classes I would have to take are United States and world history, economics, Government, Jurisprudence, Law and/or taxation, and any political science. My legal education will build on writing, analytical thinking and public speaking skills, so courses that showcase my ability to excel in these areas will look good on my undergraduate transcript. The classes I have to take for that is debate, english, literature, logic, philosophy or public policy, public speaking, and writing. Some other helpful courses that I could take are criminology, psychology, sociology, and religion. (Michelle Fabio, 03/19/2017). While at Dayton, I will need to maintain a 3.0 GPA in order to keep my scholarships. When I have to start preparing for law school, I will have to start looking for more scholarships to help me pay for law school. If I maintain higher than the needed GPA to keep my scholarships, it will make my transcripts look better and potentially gain me more leverage to get more scholarships and get into a top law school.

There are many things needed in order to become a lawyer, I would need to earn a bachelor's degree in any subject. Then, I will have to take and pass the Law School Admission Test to attend law school and acquire a Juris Doctor.   Next, I will complete a clerkship at a local law firm to gain experience (optional). Finally I will take state Bar Examination and hopefully find a job at a firm. (Criminal Justice, 2012).

I have decided that I want to pursue criminal and civil rights law. There are millions of lawyers all around the world, there are so many people I can learn from. Law is a very serious and tough subject that requires a lot of time and dedication. There are so many different things that one can learn from lawyers. With the large amount of lawyers that exist in the world I can find thousands for each field of law. There are different things I can learn from different people in each field. In the case of law, there are overarching characteristics and traits that all lawyers follow, but when it comes to the specific sectors of law, I would be able to learn best from someone within the field.

Timeline:

1: Graduate from High School (2017)

2: Maintain 3.0+ throughout my 4 years of undergraduate study (2017-2021)

3: Graduate from College (2021)

4: Get into law school (2021)

5: Graduate from law school (2024)

6: Complete a clerkship at law firm (2025)

7: Take Bar Exam (2025)

8: Get job at firm (2026)

9: Make partner (2030)

10: Retire (2060)

Resources and Materials:

Undergraduate Study (University of Dayton): $229,480

Law School (NYU): 178,674

Bar Exam (NYC): $250

Non- Negotiables:

I think I would be willing to sacrifice the school I attend. I want to be able to get the best education I can and learn everything I can to become a good lawyer, if I have my heart set on one school and I don't end up getting in, I don't want to let that stop me from becoming a lawyer. I think that it really wouldn't matter what school I went to because at the end of the day I am there to learn as much as I can. I would not be willing to sacrifice my job as a lawyer. I am passionate about this and I don’t think I would be willing to give all of that up. I also would not sacrifice my happiness and well being. I think that wherever I end up working, I will need to be happy. I wouldn’t want to work at a place that was not benefitting to my well being because then all of the work I had done would have all been for nothing. I would want to work somewhere that I would be excited to go to every day rather than dreading it.

What if?

There are many setbacks that come with being a lawyer. With the economy and job market only getting worse, I am going to have to work incredibly hard to complete my goal. There are a few worst-case scenarios I could encounter. One could be me not getting enough scholarships to pay for law school or not getting in. Another setback I could experience would be me not getting a job once I was done with school. I think that if one of these things actually happens and I am forced to change my path, I would want to work for a non profit for animals or kids or something. I would work within the finances or something like that. Or I would work within their law division if they had one since I would have to degrees for it. I don't like to think of a backup plan because I want to think that I will not have to rely on a backup plan. I have been working extremely hard all my life and I want to be able to do what I am passionate about and something that I love to do. I want to do my best to help people in any way I can so if need be, if law school or something ends up not working then I still want to be able to complete my mission of helping people no matter what. However I will have to do it, I will do it.

Inspiration:

-You must keep your mind on the objective, not on the obstacle. – William Randolph Hearst

-Set your mind on a definite goal and observe how quickly the world stands aside to let you pass. ― Napoleon Hill

-Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

-If you don’t value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents.

-Value what you know and start charging for it. – Kim Garst

-Either you run the day or the day runs you. – Jim Rohn

Map:

This is the structure of a law firm. One day I hope to become partner at a top law firm.

Your Choice:

My goal later in life is to one day own a big house with my family and finally be able to see that all of the hard work I have done all my life has paid off and that it was all worth it.

My Time in Law

In the second unit of the senior class Endurance, we looked more into Dante’s Inferno and talked about the 9 gates of hell. We looked into a lot of different people’s situations dealing with different physical issues. We talked about David Blaine and Laura Dekker and their very different journeys they took to complete their mission. For this Action Project, we were tasked with doing something for 12 hours that would lead to completing our overall mission. I decided to look into law and work with my uncle for 12 hours to see the different aspects of law and what an average day would look like. It was very difficult to complete this project since it was a lot but I think that I was able to overcome those obstacles and make a really good project.
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Autobiography

In the first unit of Endurance, we talked all about other peoples experience enduring different physically and mental challenges. We also tried to endure some challenges ourselves. the first was sitting without moving or talking for 10 minutes, the next was holding ice in our hands for a minute, and the last one was doing a bootcamp with a karate teacher. For the Action Project, we were tasked with imagining our lives in the future and looking at the things we endured to get where we were. We had to write a chapter to an autobiography all about the experiences that led to out future. It was difficult to come up with how my future was going to look since it is so far away. I am happy with the way that my project came out.

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Chapter 1: The Beginning

As I look around the courtroom at all of the people cheering and celebrating I smile knowing that I was a part of making history. The first transgender supreme court judge had just been sworn in. I look at all of the smiles throughout the room and think back to a time when I thought I would never be where I am today.

Growing up, the words “you can do it” were a part of everyday life. I heard them learning to walk, learning to ride a bike, before a soccer game, before a sprint, and many other milestones I passed throughout the years. When I started to get older, more obsitcles started getting in my way. It started small, teachers or other adults would start saying “let him do it.” or “don’t hurt yourself hun.” Throughout my high school and college years when I started getting serious about my career, the same thing started happeneing. Except this time people were telling me that I should “quit while I’m ahead” or that there “might not be enough room for you in this field.” As a biracial female, working in the law industry has not been easy. There has been countless times where I have had doors slammed in my face or been turned away from jobs that “were not for me”.

All my life I have wanted to help people. I love playing sports and was really into ones involving team work. Outside of school, I was occuying my time with playing sports, reading, and arguing with my cousins about silly things. I always dreamed that one day I would be a part of making history in some way shape or form. It wasn’t until my junior year of high school when I started coming up with an idea for my future. I knew where I wanted to eventually be, but I had no idea all of the stuggles and roadblocks I was about to face. Going through my undergraduate studies was easy. I attended a stellar university that I really enjoyed and hope to one day be able to return the favor by donating money. Once I moved on to my graduate studies, that’s when life became a little more difficult. Since I am a biracial woman, I was not taken very seriously by some of my classmates. Everyone knows about the pay gap between men and woman and how there is some discrimination towards black lawyers. When I started pursuing this dream, I was prepared to deal with all of those things, but I will admit, there were many times where I wanted to quit.