Brutally cold weather has swept through the northeastern United States over the past few days. The AFC championship game in Pittsburgh was played in single digit temperature, with a wind chill below zero. A picture on the Internet showed a car in New York City completely encased in ice after a water pipe broke. This part of Florida has been cold, too, with temperatures dipping into the 20s at night.
Last week, a professor gave our class one of the best reasons for going to law school that I have heard in a while. He told our class about watching a construction worker walking around on top of a roof near his office. A harness and tether laid on the roof, but the worker was not using them. Perhaps the harness was heavy and uncomfortable. It was a hot day. The professor then began to explain some of the legal consequences if the worker happened to fall and be injured or killed.
"I used to tell people," he said, "that I went to law school so that I did not have to go up on roofs."
I had to smile at the simple honesty of his reasoning. It made me think about one of the reasons that I enrolled in law school.
In the not too distant past, I was employed by the U.S. Postal Service as a mail carrier in the Washington, DC area. Without getting into too many details, it was not a job that I enjoyed or that I was very good at, though I gained a new respect for the people who do that kind of work.
Working out of the station in northern Virginia, I was required to put in 10 or 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, doing heavy lifting all day long. My weight was 155 lbs. when I started the job. After six months, it was down to 135 lbs. And then there was the cold. Trying to do all that lifting of endless crates of mail in a bone chilling wind, trying to finger through stacks for individual magazines or letters when I could no longer feel my fingers, always being told "Go faster. You have to move faster," was too much. I opted to go back to school.
Last weekend, I saw a picture on the Internet of a mail carrier in Maine, bundled up and trying his best to do the job in the elements. It was more than sympathy I felt for him. I was genuinely empathetic.
So, I suppose I could say one of my reasons for going to law school was so I didn't have to deliver mail in the cold.
Part of my motivation as a lawyer will be to do a good job for working people like the guy in Maine when he comes into my office. I was fortunate to be born with a high enough IQ to get into law school. I was fortunate to be raised in an environment that allowed me to receive the education that I needed to get into law school. When my roof needs to be repaired, or I use the Post Office to send a package somewhere in the dead of winter, I realize that service is being performed by people whose job I would not want and that I probably could not do very well.
I can be a good lawyer, though, and fight a good battle for the mail carrier or construction worker when he or she comes into my office with a legal problem. That is my arena, my sphere.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
The Places to Study
At least as far as I can tell, there is no correlation between law school grades and where a person chooses to study. But it is interesting to watch the study habits of my colleagues.
Personally, I like the second floor of the library. There is an open area of nine tables where I usually sit. It is the only section of the library where talking is permitted. Many of the same faces greet me each day when I come into the library and head over to those tables. One of my friends has taken to calling our group "The 2nd Floor Library Club." Last semester, the 3L students who comprise The 2nd Floor Library Club held a potluck at the library during exams. The food was surprisingly good, with home baked cookies and cupcakes. There was also fresh fruit, pretzels, doughnuts, bagels and some nice beverages. I brought a box of "Cheez-Its," which nobody ate.
The atmosphere on the 1st and 3rd floors of the library is decidedly different. You are expected to be completely quiet here. There are far more cubicles than tables on these floors, so that you are boxed in when you sit down. Quite a few of my friends prefer this environment. They usually sit in the exact same cubicle for hours on end, and I can only see the tops of their heads when I walk past the desks.
Still another group of students avoid the library altogether as much as possible. A couple of my friends who are at the very top of my class are rarely seen in the library. I asked one of them why she did not study there. She replied that the library freaks her out. She can feel everyone's stress in there. I cannot argue with her system. She has the GPA to back it up. In truth, most of the married law school students go home to study rather than to the library. Law school takes enough of their time away from being with their spouses.
The law review house, just outside the main classroom building, is probably another popular place for some of our best and brightest to study. I've been inside a couple of times as a visitor. The law review is the most prestigious extracurricular organization at the school. Accordingly, the house is quiet, comfortably furnished, and had a nice aroma both times I was there.
Still, I prefer the space of the 2nd floor of the library. It is much larger than my apartment, for one. Also, I am trying to enjoy the freedom to study at my own pace, to move around and talk to my law school friends, while it lasts. I like being able to take a quick break by looking up from my textbook and asking a friend at the next table about the upcoming Florida State basketball game. Some of the students in law school are real characters and comedians. I appreciate listening to the jokes they make at the second floor tables, too.
In about six months, after we graduate and take the bar exam, these same students will scatter all across the state and the country. The places we study, and perhaps how we study, will become very different.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
Personally, I like the second floor of the library. There is an open area of nine tables where I usually sit. It is the only section of the library where talking is permitted. Many of the same faces greet me each day when I come into the library and head over to those tables. One of my friends has taken to calling our group "The 2nd Floor Library Club." Last semester, the 3L students who comprise The 2nd Floor Library Club held a potluck at the library during exams. The food was surprisingly good, with home baked cookies and cupcakes. There was also fresh fruit, pretzels, doughnuts, bagels and some nice beverages. I brought a box of "Cheez-Its," which nobody ate.
The atmosphere on the 1st and 3rd floors of the library is decidedly different. You are expected to be completely quiet here. There are far more cubicles than tables on these floors, so that you are boxed in when you sit down. Quite a few of my friends prefer this environment. They usually sit in the exact same cubicle for hours on end, and I can only see the tops of their heads when I walk past the desks.
Still another group of students avoid the library altogether as much as possible. A couple of my friends who are at the very top of my class are rarely seen in the library. I asked one of them why she did not study there. She replied that the library freaks her out. She can feel everyone's stress in there. I cannot argue with her system. She has the GPA to back it up. In truth, most of the married law school students go home to study rather than to the library. Law school takes enough of their time away from being with their spouses.
The law review house, just outside the main classroom building, is probably another popular place for some of our best and brightest to study. I've been inside a couple of times as a visitor. The law review is the most prestigious extracurricular organization at the school. Accordingly, the house is quiet, comfortably furnished, and had a nice aroma both times I was there.
Still, I prefer the space of the 2nd floor of the library. It is much larger than my apartment, for one. Also, I am trying to enjoy the freedom to study at my own pace, to move around and talk to my law school friends, while it lasts. I like being able to take a quick break by looking up from my textbook and asking a friend at the next table about the upcoming Florida State basketball game. Some of the students in law school are real characters and comedians. I appreciate listening to the jokes they make at the second floor tables, too.
In about six months, after we graduate and take the bar exam, these same students will scatter all across the state and the country. The places we study, and perhaps how we study, will become very different.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
Saturday, January 8, 2011
The Drive to Florida
Classes for the spring semester begin on Monday the 10th. Yesterday, I made the 10 hour drive back from North Carolina to Tallahassee. As I headed down Interstate 95 South, the time alone in my car gave me a chance to think about the Christmas gatherings with my family, and to contemplate the future.
It was nice to see my aunts, uncles and cousins back in NC. Several of them asked me how much longer I had in law school, and were surprised when I replied, "Just one more semester, if everything goes according to plan." My time in school has flown by for both them and myself.
"Wow, so you're pretty much a lawyer now," one of my cousins said.
"Not quite," I answered. "I still have to pass the bar exam after I graduate."
I could not help but notice that a few family members were studying me like never before. The best way that I can describe their look is as if they thought I knew some important secret. The way they looked at me and asked me questions about school reminded me of the privilege and opportunity I was given when I received the acceptance letter from Florida State Law back in the spring of 2008.
Yesterday when I began my drive from NC, the morning was cold, overcast and drizzling. The temperature had not climbed much above the freezing mark. But as I headed south toward Florida, I could see the end of the cloud cover in front of me, growing larger. Though it was only one or two o'clock in the afternoon, the sunlight shining off the cloud edges had the colors of a sunrise. By the time I was in Georgia, the clouds were all gone and it felt warm to stand outside and pump gas into my car.
As I drove, I thought about graduation from law school. Graduation will mean the taking on of responsibility- responsibility for my clients and for my fellow attorneys whose livelihood and welfare of their families is invested in the success of the firm. At Christmas, I looked at my parents and thought about all the responsibilities they had shouldered in their lives. My dad, as the top manager for an entire county of probation officers (and a county containing the largest military base in the world). My mother, for all the disabled and mentally handicapped children she taught over the years. My mother as well for all the meals that she cooked for us as a family and all the rooms in the house that she constantly cleaned.
Each morning, my parents got up before dawn to head to their stress-filled jobs. 25 to 30 years they did this. And now, they are both enjoying well deserved retirements.
Over the break, I caught myself complaining about the hours in front of a computer screen that a lawyer must spend. But I stopped when I thought about my parents and the work of their lives.
It's my turn, now. Soon it will be "The Real World, Part II." This time, I will have a law degree from a great school. As I headed down I-95 to Jacksonville and then I-10 to Tallahassee, it became clear in my mind that not disappointing my parents is the chief motivator in my life. They worked very hard to help me get to this point. I owe it to them to do my very best to become successful- as a trial lawyer or through whatever other doors this degree opens for me.
I hope that I can remember these thoughts and this goal as I make decisions for the future.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
It was nice to see my aunts, uncles and cousins back in NC. Several of them asked me how much longer I had in law school, and were surprised when I replied, "Just one more semester, if everything goes according to plan." My time in school has flown by for both them and myself.
"Wow, so you're pretty much a lawyer now," one of my cousins said.
"Not quite," I answered. "I still have to pass the bar exam after I graduate."
I could not help but notice that a few family members were studying me like never before. The best way that I can describe their look is as if they thought I knew some important secret. The way they looked at me and asked me questions about school reminded me of the privilege and opportunity I was given when I received the acceptance letter from Florida State Law back in the spring of 2008.
Yesterday when I began my drive from NC, the morning was cold, overcast and drizzling. The temperature had not climbed much above the freezing mark. But as I headed south toward Florida, I could see the end of the cloud cover in front of me, growing larger. Though it was only one or two o'clock in the afternoon, the sunlight shining off the cloud edges had the colors of a sunrise. By the time I was in Georgia, the clouds were all gone and it felt warm to stand outside and pump gas into my car.
As I drove, I thought about graduation from law school. Graduation will mean the taking on of responsibility- responsibility for my clients and for my fellow attorneys whose livelihood and welfare of their families is invested in the success of the firm. At Christmas, I looked at my parents and thought about all the responsibilities they had shouldered in their lives. My dad, as the top manager for an entire county of probation officers (and a county containing the largest military base in the world). My mother, for all the disabled and mentally handicapped children she taught over the years. My mother as well for all the meals that she cooked for us as a family and all the rooms in the house that she constantly cleaned.
Each morning, my parents got up before dawn to head to their stress-filled jobs. 25 to 30 years they did this. And now, they are both enjoying well deserved retirements.
Over the break, I caught myself complaining about the hours in front of a computer screen that a lawyer must spend. But I stopped when I thought about my parents and the work of their lives.
It's my turn, now. Soon it will be "The Real World, Part II." This time, I will have a law degree from a great school. As I headed down I-95 to Jacksonville and then I-10 to Tallahassee, it became clear in my mind that not disappointing my parents is the chief motivator in my life. They worked very hard to help me get to this point. I owe it to them to do my very best to become successful- as a trial lawyer or through whatever other doors this degree opens for me.
I hope that I can remember these thoughts and this goal as I make decisions for the future.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)