WOO HOO!

I FINALLY got my last lawschool grade in from last semester. I was hanging on to my sanity by a thread waiting for it. My cumulative GPA was barely a 3.0 and I needed a 3.0 to be cume laude. Plus, I wanted to know if I really, officially graduated and didn't fail my last exam.

I started out my lawschool career in the depths of despair when it came to grades. My grades were NOT good. But I could say I was at the top- I was at the top of the bottom half of the class. My GPA averaged 2.7. I had NEVER gotten a C before in my LIFE- not in highschool and not in college. Now I was averaging B-. I felt stupid. I felt like I could never be good enough for law school. I felt like I should drop out.

But I kept with it despite the initial shock of my grades. Second semester 1L year was not much better- but a little better. I was at a 2.8. 2L year, I had enough law school exams under my belt to kinda know how to prepare better and ended with a 2.9. The hardest part was that no matter how hard I tried I always got the same results. It was definately frustrating. And even doing a little better didn't help much because all my achievements got absorbed by my horrible 1L grades.

By 3L year, I had it down. I knew how to barely study at all and still pull a B average. At this point each A I received was cancelled out by a C. But the point I want to make is --- fear not! All you law students who feel crappy and horrible and think that you suck. It is and will be OK. Law students are pretty much the cream of the intellectual crop to begin with. If you only get C's in law school, it's because you are competing with all the most brilliant minds of your generation (or older generations). And guess what? If you do horribly 1L year, you can gradually work your way to an acceptable place by the time you graduate.

My last semester is great evidence of that. Before last semester I had a 2.91 average or something like that. But all my experience from past semesters and all the skill I obtained about taking effective notes, picking out the important things from notes, and taking an exam really paid off- finally. By then I knew how to take a law school exam and that is really the key right there. You can know all the rules by heart but if you don't know how to take a law school exam, it won't matter. That is really the key right there! So, this semester I I ended up pulling off a 3.59. I don't know how I did. But I did! I can graduate cume laude now!

I finally feel like I got the results I deserve. I finally feel recognized and appreciated. I finally feel like law school is paying off. While I have always been a proponent of grades don't matter (I got a job offer while my GPA was still a 2.9). I do appreciate how amazing it feels to get the grades you feel that you deserve.

So hang in there 1Ls and don't let your grades get you down too much. You will still learn a heck of a lot in lawschool and at the end of it you will officially be a Doctor. I am so excited to be Dr. Cee now. I can't wait to make a hotel reservation under that name and see if I get some special treatment.

"Do you know if the hotel is pager friendly?"
"I'm not getting a sig' on my beeper."