Law Students

Second Chances

Last week I took the bar exam. Again. (Sometimes it seems like I?m in some kind of cosmic contest to see how many giant events I can fit into a twelve month period?.graduating from law school, getting a job, studying for the bar, taking the bar, failing the bar, losing said job, studying for the bar, taking the bar, post-cancer surgery, etc. I?m totally winning.) It was?the bar exam. It wasn?t any easier or more fun the second time around. I was much calmer during most of the prep period, because I knew what to expect. I knew exactly what I needed to do, and I wasn?t worried about getting it all done because I knew that would happen. I felt more confident during the test itself this time, but I still don?t have any strong feeling one way or the other about whether I passed. I knew the answers to a lot of the questions?but I didn?t know the answers to a lot of the questions. And now there?s nothing left to do but wait.

About three weeks ago, the office that hired me last spring called one day while I was studying. I got the message at lunch time and hoped that maybe they were calling to offer me a job. But as I dialed the number, I began to think that maybe they were actually calling to tell me that they didn?t have any more jobs and that I should look somewhere else. And my mind kept jumping back and forth between those two possibilities as I listened to the phone ring and waited for someone to answer on the other end. Maybe they were calling to offer me a job! Or maybe not! I finally got in touch with the person who had left a message for me. You can probably imagine my happiness when she told me that she was calling to offer me a job. She told me that they wanted me to come back as a clerk while I was waiting for the bar results, and that once I got my license I would be reinstated as an Assistant State?s Attorney.

Since that phone call, I have spent a lot of time counting my blessings. I am so lucky not only to have a job, but a job that is essentially my Dream Job. I am humbled by the fact that they believe in me enough to offer me this position before I even receive the results of my second try. But the pressure! Oy vey! If I don?t pass this time, I will have to go through all the same pain and humiliation that I went through last October and the thought of that is almost unbearable. In fact, I?ve been trying not to think about it, because I can?t even imagine how it will all play out if it happens again.

Full post as published by The Merits of the Case on March 04, 2010 (boomark / email).