SSDD Pt. 1

As promised I am back. I apologize for my absences but life can sometimes get in the way of living if you know what I mean. Always have to deal with the "Same Sh*T Different Day".The life of a soon to be Law Student is always busy and requires lots of attention. With that being said I want to talk a little about what I have been up too, and what I think might be helpful for anyone trying to to figure out what to do before going to school.

I have personally identified three things I need to do before I go away to school in August.

1. Put my financial house in order, and take care of any outstanding debt.
2. Spend lots of quality time with both friends and family.
3. Return my mind to the student setting, and become engaged with my soon to be environment

Again this applies to what I am doing now, but I think it could be a pretty good rule of thumb as well. The most important thing to do is get your financial duckies in a row. You have just spent 3-5 years as an undergraduate and that had to get financed somehow. Personally I was on scholarship until late in my junior year so my own debt is relatively low compared to friends. Full disclosure, my outstanding dept right now is roughly $18,000. I used various student loans to pay for my apartment my last two years of college as well as tuition, books, and general living expenses. Looking back on everything I would have preferred to use one lender, to make repayment easier. Unfortunately for me I have four different lenders, two of which are private companies which makes it a hassle to cover all four of them at the beginning of the month. Which leads me to my next point under number one: defer student loans as long as possible while you wait to get into school. This was my biggest mistake, I was to lazy to take the necessary steps and now I have to struggle to stay current. Graduating into the current economy it is hard to find a job for people in my age range, and the jobs that are available do not lend themselves to lots of money.

So what kind of job should you get before law school? It varies from person to person, and you definitely want to do something you are passionate about and will enjoy. My advice is to get a job that keeps your mind stimulated, you don't want your brain atrophy in your time off from school. The summer after I graduated I worked as a camp director for teenagers in my home county. It was decent pay and I only worked five days a week, plus it played to my personal strengths of organizing, leading, and programming. When that was over I carried those skills and that experience over to working on a campaign for the local school board. As an Assistant campaign manager, I took those same leadership, management, and programming skills and implemented them in coordinating a campaign. This also married my second passion in life, politics, to things I'm already good at. After my candidate won, I was looking for a job that paid relatively well, a flexible schedule, and was not too demanding...I chose substitute teaching. It paid well, no weekends, and I could work when I wanted too. I was so good at it that the school I was at offered me a vacant 12th Grade American Gov't class to teach, which is what im doing now. I highly suggest teaching in the interim because it keeps the mind in the student mode: waking up during school hours, taking notes, and class discussions. I also get major holidays off without having to request them. Stay tuned for Same Sh*t Different Day pt 2.