The Call

Today, a large portion of the 1L class sat by their cell phones at 1pm. Many were in the library, some others took their phones with them on errands to keep themselves preoccupied. 1pm-5pm was time frame we were told they would be making the calls.

The call that each of us was waiting for was a call from one of the school's four law journals, offering us a junior staff position. The selection is based on the write-on competition that I've mentioned many times in here. After sacrificing our Spring Breaks to read 500 pages of materials and write a 10 page comment with probably some 40 citations, we just wanted our phones to ring today. Only law school people, law review people, are evil enough to do this on Friday the 13th.

Out of all days, I happened to sign up to give a tour to admitted students today during the time slot. I thought it would be rude to keep my phone on so I grudgingly turned it off and put it in my pocket.

At 1:15pm, there was a small break so my group could use the restroom after lunch so I checked my voicemail. One new message. Could this be it? It was Alex and it was probably the only time I ever was sad to hear his voice as opposed to some random person. As I finished the really fun tour at 2:30pm, I quickly went to check my voicemail again. One new message. And it was it.

I got an offer to be on the Administrative Law Review. That means I'll be writing a 60 page paper over the summer and obligated to a few hundred hours doing citation checking (I'm not exaggerating), but it's also the opportunity to work on a prestigious journal. Law Reviews are the coveted activity in law school that law firms regard very highly because of the reading and research skills involved.

I'm still in shock that I made it onto one. I wanted to celebrate but at the same time I felt really bad for many of my good friends who didn't make it on. I didn't know what to say or what I could say, but my roommate and I took them out to dinner and icecream; I hoped that helped a little.

The whole process is like college admissions process where so many talented people apply, you just don't know what the selection committee is looking for or why some amazing people don't make the cut. Sometimes it's luck of the draw and sometimes it comes down to little tiny things. It's hard to judge a person's writing capabilities based off a short submission where everyone writes on the same topic but I don't really know of any other way to do it. Once again, like college admissions.

I think I'll celebrate with some sleep. Best reward.