Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Personal Statement for Law School

Hello everyone.  I know I have been quiet and I apologize.  For anyone that keeps up with my writings I feel that you deserve to know why.  I work full time like many of you, but I also have a part time job now as well, plus I have a rental property I have to keep up with.  I am attempting to balance the here and now, with any potential future that I have.  I am also still attempting to find a career, rather than just have a job.  If our economy was as amazing as the drive by media likes to proclaim, this would not be as big of a problem as it is.  I also have been experimenting with videos...  I am still active and concerned, it is just that I am unable to keep up with every form of media.  I spend way too much time on twitter, because anything you do there is short and sweet (or not so sweet). 

This is an edited copy of my personal statement for law school.  I am pushing the concept that I have overcome socioeconomic misfortune in my life and thus deserve a chance at law school.  The problem is that I do not truly believe those in the ivory towers of academia truly understand what life is like in the real world.  So I pushed the envelope in my statement to try to give them an honest taste of what it is like to be poor in the USA.  I did edit out any information that would make who I am obvious, because I do value my privacy.  If I am put into the limelight, it will be by choice and not because some liberal ass wagon wants to make me stand out.

On to the statement...



suscitate aka Room 101
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Personal Statement
            My personal statement is going to be different from most.  I could explain in depth the logic of why education was irrelevant to me as a teen.  I could explain that I consider my true parents to be violence, because I was in a world of constant violence (home, school and streets).  I could explain what it was like to be in Detroit when it was the murder capital of the world and we were proud of that fact.  Or I could try to explain the mentality in Detroit that led to five hundred plus fires every Devil’s Night.  I could even attempt to explain what I saw as Young Boys Incorporated developed the youth gang model that not only is prevalent throughout the USA, but is spreading all over the world. 
            Instead I am going to share a parable that I developed when I tried to explain what the environment was like of my teenage years and how it affected me as an adult.  My friend has a PhD in psychology and is use to dealing with ex-convicts, helping them adjust to society upon release.  Despite this fact, when I first told it to him, he was shocked.  I was told that this attitude could not exist in the civilized world that it sounded more like the Third World. 
            “I need money and it does not matter why I need money (drugs, alcohol or simply to eat).  It also does not matter how I get the money.  The only thing that matters is for me to get money so I can take care of my needs for today.  You have money, so I rob you.  My problems for the day are taken care of.  If I get arrested for robbing you, I get a roof over my head, three daily meals, healthcare and I watch television.  My problems are still taken care of.  If during the act of robbing you or some related to it afterwards I end up getting killed, guess what... My problems are still taken care of.  There is no downside of me robbing you (or committing any other crime), so why should I do anything but attempt to satisfy my needs for that day?”
            What is truly sad is that no matter how different I am today, I still miss those days.  I realize that times have changed and I really would not want to return to that lifestyle.  Maybe it is just because I do not want to face the fact that I wasted my youth.  Or maybe it is because I am jealous of what I never had.  I remember one time about fourteen years ago I was in a doctor’s waiting room here in XXXXX.  There was a mother with her child in the waiting room and they were talking.  I cannot remember the approximate age of the child or even the sex of the child, but I remember the feelings that were shared in that conversation.  I found it absolutely corny and disgusting; it was like something out of a Leave It to Beaver episode.  It was the sort of mentality that has not existed in the USA for fifty years.  Yet there was a part of me that was jealous and envied that child, for other than the violence of the streets the closest thing I had to the love of a parent was from a German Shepherd.  I remember crying when he died at the foot of my bed when I was around fourteen.  I did not cry at my grandmother’s funeral, when a close friend was killed or when a girlfriend overdosed; but my dog’s death affected me.
            This is a taste of the youth that shaped me into an adult, so yes I believe I bring very different experiences with me to XXXXX Law.  The only experiences I have in law are from the wrong side and not because I have family or friends in the field.  I bring empathy and understanding to the concept of justice, but without blanket forgiveness.  Everything on the streets is like a game, you play and you pay.  The USA (XXXX) area is also very attractive because of how quiet it is and the close proximity to XXXXX.  I also am very concerned about debt, since I am twenty years senior of the average law student.