Familypalooza and T.J.'s Graduation

Instead of uploading a ton of pictures (which I will still probably do, but only to facebook since that is a little easier), I decided to create a family collage. Most of these are from my last trip or two, with a couple thrown in for good measure so no nieces and nephews or anyone feels left out. My heart is big enough for everyone. It is always good to see the family though and I really enjoyed the trip home to see everyone, even though it was only for a couple of days. I am really glad that the girls from Portland and Kim and Byron were able to come up, along with the Utah Crew.

I am full in the swing of finals now, and since I already wrote a forty page outline last week and typed over four thousand words in my first final, I feel like I can take a small break and blog a little.

I really wanted to do a blog shout-out to Tracy. Way to go sister. If I do say so myself, graduating from law school is a big deal. I have often thought how to explain law school to people. It is really like nothing else, and I don't think "it is really hard" does it justice. I think that "it is hard" is a necessary term to describe it, but not sufficient to really let you know about it. Let me tell you a little of what it entails.

The hardest thing about law school, and what I do not think that people understand, is the competition. When you are in college, or better yet, high school, it is readily apparent how kids fall into groups. You do not even need to use the term smarter, they have different abilities. Some are good at sports, some are good at math, and some are good writers and speakers, they will excel at different things. There are also levels in those areas, some kids the information comes a little more readily to, and some are more willing to put in greater effort for a greater reward. Some kids succeed and some do not do as well, but the reasons are apparent. Skip forward to law school. With some variation, you are in a school with kids that got very similar scores in the LSAT, and did comparably to you in undergraduate grades. You are all kids that did better in writing and speaking. All of the sudden, there is very little difference in academic ability and desire. Furthermore, kids in law school (at least at BYU and my own school Hastings, other schools I do not have first hand knowledge, but I have heard) are willing to do what it takes to get good grades and be successful. This means that everyone that is as smart as you already is willing to work as hard as you or harder. So is the material hard to learn? Not necessarily, but being that there is only one test to determine your entire grade for the class, you need to be able to distinguish yourself from your classmates in some way. This means you put in more effort (hopefully), or you hope your brain rewards you for spending 100 hours on a sixty page essay and you make an analysis that another student did not. This is not luck though, you train yourself to look at problems in different ways and to ask questions. Of course, you need to do this under a time limit and with no notes. So it can be difficult. This is what law school is all about.

That is just the tests and grades. You need to throw in the Socratic method, the oral arguments, the writing of briefs (arguments for a case) and research papers. You need to take skill classes like trial advocacy, negotiation, mediation (shout out to Tracy for being an ADR machine), and other things. It can be a little overwhelming, and fun; some people really enjoy this stuff, I do (for the most part, I am not a glutton for punishment).

Finally, you do not just learn about facts and figures. This is the other difficult thing for people that are not in law school to comprehend. You need to learn to re-wire your brain. To actually change the way you think. The first year about law school is less about learning law and more about learning to think like a lawyer. Most master's programs from what I understand (which is limited I will be quick to admit) are expanding on what you already know. More advanced or difficult techniques, etc. There are no pre-requisites for law school. You have to learn something that is not taught quite the same in other places. So yeah, it is hard. I do not want to sound too high and mighty. While I feel I can compete with my classmates more or less at this stage, it took some time to learn the system. Another thing that I learned in law school is that it is a deposit/withdrawal system. You get out what you put in. If you are willing to work a little harder, and go that extra mile, you can succeed. Not so much about smarts as about will, because like I said, everyone here is at least as smart as you are.

The final thing that I want to tell you about is what they call a hard curve. Most of you are familiar with a soft curve, the highest student score is an "A", and sometimes the lowest is an "F", but usually not. Many law school have a hard curve. This means that at least 20% (depending on the school) of the class must get a "C" or lower. No exceptions. This means that in a class where you are competing with kids that are all around the same intelligence, and that are working their bums off, they have to divide them somehow. So if the best score in the class is a 90% and the worst score is an 85%, then those kids that are in that 20% of the class that scored around an 85 get a "C" grade, or lower. You might say, "but that is not fair! That is a "B" score!" You learn rather quickly in law school that life is not fair. There are kids all the time who decide that it is not for them. This is the most depressing post ever. This is how America trains its lawyers. This might also explain why many lawyers are the way they are. Those who love competition thrive in this type of atmosphere. Those who do not must be at least tough enough to hang with those competitors and kids that will do whatever it takes to succeed.

Tracy was tough enough. I am not going to say that it was easy for her, that would belittle what she has accomplished. It was hard, and it tested her and stretched her beyond where she felt she could reach I am sure, but reach it she did, and in a way that we should all be proud of. Especially since she had a baby in the last year. That is just nuts. I tell people here that and they literally cannot comprehend it. Kudos Trace, kudos. I hope you will all join me in congratulating Tracy (and Marc, because a wonderful husband makes it a little easier I am sure, and much more possible with a baby) on a job well done. Good luck on the bar and in your future career, sister, and don't forget about Harrison (Harrison?) and Nuttall. Yes we can!

This turned into a much longer post than I meant it to be, but I blame it on tests I have to write.