Back to School

I just glanced through the "suggested answers" to the July 2009 CaliBar essays via a link posted by my fellow Bar Exam Survivor - The Grand Poobah.

As I read them I felt that same sick to my stomach feeling I felt the entire bar exam. The feeling that says "I'm just fucking over this shit already." And I am. Over it that is.

So, I'm back in school, come what may. Seems my failure to acquire an accredited undergraduate degree prior to my undergraduate courses aging approximately 20 years has left me exatcly where I started at age 18 - in my "freshman" year of college.

I am retaking the usual general education requirements over the next few semesters through two of Maricopa Coummunity Colleges' local institutions. One is wholly online and the other, well lets just say I like being in a classroom for the first time ever.

Why ?

Short version: Once I rack up 60 credits I am entering an oriental medicine degree program here in Phoenix. Its a 4 year full time (albeit evenings and weekends) professional program in modern traditional chinese medicine (acupuncture, Chinese herbology, qi gong, tui na, and on and on).

Why not?

I already am in study mode. In fact, 14 credits is less work than bar review was. Less time. Less thinking. Less stress.

No, I'm not giving up on my dreams and goals. Law never was the end all be all for me. I just forgot that after July 08.

So if you see me walking around campus say hello and buy me a coffee .... you know you want to!

One More Week and I'll Be Through

"Here we go again... same old shit again...."

The cadence we used to sing in the Army (and when I say sing I use that term in the loosest possible way) were usually geared towards counting down until some shitty thing was over and life got better.

This is so because the thing that we were consumed by was usually rather shitty.

I think the key is that if you cannot change the shitty things then you have to not be consumed by the things so shitty.

I am off to Sacramento tomorrow for the week. For three days of that week I will be writing the bar exam. The bar exam is not going to consume me because at the end of the three days I will walk out still being the same person I am right now. The bar exam is not shitty because I can do anything for three days.

Besides, I am going to a certain Wine Piazzo to taste, enjoy, and acquire some of the most wonderfully grown old world grapes this side of Italy.

Now that my friends is something I will allow to consume me.

Who Is Counting Anyway?

Its not like I'm really counting down the days until Cal Bar Exam III. But its just under two weeks away.

I have my pencils, pens, admission ticket, ear plu.... shit I still need to get ear plugs.

Guess I need to make a list and check it twice?

Well, I'm really not counting.

Its not like I'm a hundred points short of passing. Just 5 raw points.

Feedback from BarBri has been helpful and I am thinking differently about the essays. I see the facts differently. I organize differently (and I didn't really even organize on Cal Bar Exam I). I IRAC - which is different.

I feel more prepared than I have been in the past.

But don't get me wrong. I'm not arrogant about this thing in any way.

I need more coffee ....

In celebration of Independence Day

I am the Infantry.

I am my country's strength in war, her deterent in peace.

I am the heart of the fight, wherever, whenever.

I carry America's faith and honor against her enemies.

I am the Queen of Battle.

I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained soldier in the world.

In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win.

Never will I fail my country's trust.

Always I fight on, through the foe, to the objective, to triumph over all.

If necessary, I fight to my death.

By my steadfast courage, I have won 233 years of freedom.

I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, for I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight.

I forsake not my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty.

I am relentless.

I am always there, now and forever.

I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!

Building

Hi. I'm Brook Davis. Not really, but thats the name we'll use here. I am in the process of populating this blog with past blogshit from another location. I am not editing anything (aside from spelling errors) and the dates will reflect the orogonal post dates.

Today I am in the process of preparing to take the California Bar Exam for the third time. More about that later....

What a long strange trip ....

One year ago I was, inter alia:

1) "studying" (read - panicing) for the July 2008 bar exam; and

2) supressing my bitterness and anger about my (soon to be ex) wife's 'sudden' decision to move to Texas.

A lot of my blogging then was laced with that bitterness and panic and most of my faithful readers seemed to rather enjoy my angry prose. It seems that as my anger has subsided, so has my readership and kudos. I don't know if it was the FML flavor of my blogs or the underlying disposition that no matter what, I was not going to roll over and take it.

Whatever it was my life is tempered and calm now. No drama. Really, I mean no drama. Nada.

We are all moved into the new apartment now and have unpacked enough of the boxes that we can walk from room to room, see the furniture, eat dinner at the table, and relax a little.

For all the moving I have had to suffer through in the past year this move was different. Everything really just fell into the right place at the right time. I am rather accustomed to having things just fall into place in my life and I suspect I have reached a turning point.

So it seems I have no bitterness, no anger, no jaded outrage to share with you. All I have is a smile, a warm heart, and the calm that only comes with knowing that someone has your back no matter what comes along.

Bar preparation is progressing and I start the essay course this coming Sunday. I am excited and determined, happy, and I wouldn't change a thing....

Clap Clap V2.0

I received my scores from the February 09 Bar Exam and I was 15 points away from passing, closing the gap halfway from last July.

I enrolled in Bar/Bri's EssayAdvantage and PerformanceAdvantage courses via iPod in order to get the more 'hands on' writing instruction for each tested subject. This way I am modeling my essay writing on passing essays rather than mythical "model answers" that were written over several months instead of an hour.

"Everyone takes Bar/Bri" is a mantra long repeated in the halls of law schools and bar exam centers from coast to coast, and I want my essays to look like the essays written by those who pass.

I have a reasonable study schedule in place and already have all the substantive law lectures reviewed. I am still focused from last time and daily my focus is sharper.

I am absolutely determined. I'm not sure I can say that about July 2008. I was still responding to my sudden life changes and, quite honestly, I was being a bit dramatic, and a complete asshole.

As fun as it was, I'm not going to rinse and repeat what has almost worked. I have a new system, new materials, a fresh start and renewed purpose.

I am calm and happy actually. The only stress was money related and that issue is moot.

I took five minutes and revisited why I was taking the bar in the first place and my perspective was refreshed. I'm happy and I know it.

Clap Clap