Today is the coldest it has been since I have moved up here. The temperature was –10 degrees at my house when I woke up this morning and that was without the wind chill. The weatherman said it could feel like –30 degrees in some areas with the wind chill. In case you are not from up north I can tell you that temperatures like that make you want to crawl back into bed and go back to sleep.
But, it is not all bad news up in Vermont. The other day I found out that I got officially accepted in to the JD program for next fall! I am really happy about that, but at the same time I wonder if I am a bit crazy to want to subject myself to 3 more years of HARD work, stress, and little sleep. I guess that means that I really want to be a lawyer.

I guess that also means I better start getting use to all the lawyers are the scum of the earth jokes. I guess there are lawyers who sold their soul. Those are the lawyers that chase ambulances and have commercials all the time trying to get you to call a 1–800 number in some state to get compensation for “you or someone you love that has suffered from XYZ.” I just don’t see the people who graduate from VLS becoming one of those lawyers.
Sometimes I sit in class and wonder what type of lawyer I will become. Will I become a lawyer like those in the cases that I read for class? Who knows? All I know is that I will pursue a career that I can be proud of, and not because I am making a lot of money, although I hope to, but because I am fighting for the good guy.
What I have also learned is that who the good guy is can be subjective. Sometimes in class we do role-playing or hypothetical exercises, and about half the time you get assigned to a side you wouldn’t ordinarily argue for. What I have found is that in those situations, it is very easy to turn the bad guy into the good guy, just because (1) you want to do well on the class assignment and (2) you don’t want to loose the argument. It can be a bit freaky to see how easy it is to argue for something you completely disagree with.
All I know is that I hope not to get turned around in my professional career and represent a side I completely disagree with. I have told my friends and family that if they ever see me becoming one of “those” lawyers, they have my permission to kick me in the butt and ask me what the hell do I think I am doing. Hopefully it will never come down to that.