Derailed at My Law School

"It's only a story, it's not real.  It's only a story!"

I have to start standing up for myself.  I have always been a, in the words of the dean of my school, "spineless little sh*t!"

When I was alone, one Monday morning, taping up an ad to my scamblog, LawSchoolFail, in the restroom of my law school library, a janitor walked in and asked what I was doing.  Sheepishly, I replied, "nothing."  He looked at the ad that I was hanging up on the law school wall and looked at me once more, asking me to "tell him the truth."

I said, "I was hanging up some information.  I thought we could advertise."  I went to grab the paper, but was intercepted by the angry janitor.  He quickly grabbed the paper, which fell toward the ground.  He pocketed it and I asked for it back.  He said, "no, you will just hang it up when I leave."

Later that week I got an e-mail from none other than the law school dean.  He told me that he wanted to set up a time to meet with me.  By this time I had forgotten all about the little advertisement that I was hanging in the bathroom, and I was excited to be meeting with a big time law school dean.  In fact, I have never met or spoke to this guy before, so I figured that this would be a good time to "network" as the law school employment guides say to do.

So, I found myself waiting for the dean up in his office.  He came out and called me back to his office where he had me have a seat.  He immediately asked how I liked law school, in which I said, "I am enjoying my time here very much."  Right after I said these words, I saw the advertisement for my blog sitting next to him on his desk.  I immediately knew why I was called into the office.

The dean told me immediately that he had read this blog in the past and was appalled that it was written by a student at his school.  I did not know what to say.  I did not want a soul at my school to know that I wrote this blog.  He had a scowl on his face when I asked what he could do to make my law school experience more enjoyable.

I said I was terrified about not finding a job.  He showed me the law school pamphlet and pointed to the employment statistics.  He also printed out my transcript and showed me that I was well within the numbers of people who would find a job.  He stated that since I was not in the lowest of ranks, that a job was almost guaranteed for me.  He said that even though it shows I have loans of well over x-amount, that I would be able to probably pay them off in as little as 5 years. 

I did not know what to say.  I nodded and he said, "what else is bothering you? You can be frank, I appreciate candor."  I said, "I don't know.  I had fun with the blog and a lot of students really enjoy reading it.  I have made a following for myself, but now I realize I was wrong."

The dean offered me a partial scholarship if I would take my blog down, or better yet, change my tone.  I felt as if this would be selling out, and since I already have so many loans, I turned him down.  I said "I will think about changing what I have to say, but some people are not going to like my new tone."  The dean glared at me for a moment but then smiled and said, "I understand completely.  I used to be a spineless little sh*t myself."

I did not know what to say to this.  I almost melted right there in my seat.  He told me he would "be reading and that he hoped that he would find the material more palatable," as he usually reads my blog during mealtime hours.

I decided to try to make the blog more useful for law students who were in a situation such as mine.  I thought I would write about thinking positive versus thinking negative.  I do believe that thinking in a negative manner doesn't do anyone any good.  Further, I thought posting about job search strategies as well as being frugal would help other people who do search for such methods and find my blog.

As I walked out, the dean said to me, "I honestly hope I never have to see you again up here."  I was really hoping that he would help me find a good full time job.  But, in the end, he only wanted to talk to me about my blog.

I have decided that I am going to keep the tone of my blog just as I had before.  I am not going to let no sly talking dean tell me how I should write.  He did e-mail me later and said that if I liked to write he could possibly offer me a spot on the law review, but I would have to delete my blog and sign a paper that said I would never reactivate my blog again.  I was tempted, as law review was something that was important to me in the past.  However, now that I am almost at the end of my law school career, there is no point on me joining law review now.  I would probably not even have time to be published in it, and the dean would probably make sure that nothing I wrote would be actually published. 

THIS BLOG IS MY LAW REVIEW! 

I am going to keep this blog rolling, and let that dean know that I am not "spineless" as he thought I was.  I am not going to bend over backwards like a pack mule being loaded for a long journey, instead I will continue to preach the message and hold out some hope for finding a job in the future.  I will think positive and might even continue to advertise my blog around the school.  I am not going to let any law school shills control what I say on or off the internet.  We are taught that we have freedom of speech, yet there are so many people who want to stifle that freedom. 

We can not let ourselves be bullied by others.  We can not give up that which we believe in.  Haters gonna hate.  But we are the champions, my friend!



The End.