"The Force is with you, young Skywalker. But you are not a Jedi, yet."

Exams are done for this spring semester. I have to wait for my grades, but otherwise two years of law school are in the books.

My experience at Florida State Law has prepared me well, and I am now ready to begin work as a lawyer- sort of.

I have complete confidence in my abilities to start tomorrow as a personal injury attorney. Of course, I won't be an expert in the field, but there is not much more that another year of law school will do to help me prepare for that job. One of the courses offered in the spring is "Complex Civil Litigation," and that will be my number one draft pick for classes next year. A class in "Remedies" would also be helpful, but otherwise I just need to get into the fray and learn my way.

I am also ready to dive into work as an insurance defense attorney. This job is often the other side of the battle in personal injury cases. My insurance law class taught me a lot this year, and now it is time for me to apply that knowledge in a practical manner.

These are the only two areas where I can say that I am "good to go," though. As of the end of two years of law school, I am not qualified to do corporation law, nor criminal law, nor wills and estates, nor employment law. I have had absolutely no exposure to family law or tax law.

Many of these subjects are tested on the Florida Bar Exam. So next year, my final year of law school, will be devoted to learning these subjects better.

Law school is fun for me, but I now understand better the phrase: "The first year of law school, they scare you to death. The second year, they work you to death. The third year, they bore you to death." School has never bored me, but I am somewhat anxious to be done for one reason only- I am ready to start making money again.

Filling out FAFSAs (the federal application for financial student aid), going further into debt, and living the economical lifestyle of the cash-strapped student is getting a little old. I'm ready to swing out some, go out a little more and not worry so much about finances. I have heeded well another phrase about law school: "If you live like a lawyer when you are a student, you will live like a student when you become a lawyer."

But I can not complain. Life in Tallahassee is good. The weather is warm, and tonight I will celebrate the end of exams with my friends. I am a happy person, much happier than most people in this world. I have enough experience to know that when you are in a place that makes you happy, you should not be in such a big rush to change it.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn