I have always known that some of my classmates from college and law school would own businesses, have powerful positions in government, and otherwise become notable. But I didn’t expect to see a 25 year old classmate of mine from law school start so quickly.

While the rest of his classmates are summering at firms or working for financial institutions this summer, Jared Kushner, who will graduate with a JD/MBA from NYU in 2007, decided to buy a company.

According to the New York Times, Kushner ponied up $10 million dollars to buy the New York Observer. This after a deal with Robert DeNiro and his team fell through.

The past few days have been an exercise in trying to remeber what I was like before law school.

Not that I can go back, but I am trying to remember how to have fun without the near contstant pang of guilt and worry that accompanied my attempts at leisure over the last three years.

I find myself saying yes more when people call and tell me that they are above 14th street and I should come join them. Though I frittered away a lot of time in law school, something about staying in the neighborhood, near my books and the library, made me feel secure. I am going to movies again. In general, I find that I am rarely dissastified, a feeling that pervaded my waking hours just a few months ago.

And I see changes in my friends too. They are complaining less. Smiling more. We are enjoying each other’s company and no longer worried about where that enjoyment occurs.

I am looking forward to the next few years as we shed the law school ethos and become normal again.

Watch Me Go by Sheila Griffin

My friend Sheila is an amazing photographer. I highly recommend taking some time to browse her photoblog.

I am sitting for the New York Bar Exam Tuesday and Wednesday this week. God help Manhattan on Wednesday night. They aren’t going to know what hit them when three thousand over ten thousand over-stressed aspiring lawyers hit the town to cut loose after a summer of memorizing mind-numbingly arcane legal rules.

I came home several weeks ago inconsolable. The impending exam period looked impossible to manage and I was distracted by a variety of little life issues that in combination had me feeling paralyzed.

As I approached the kitchen counter I saw my old con law book on the counter, open to the very first page so that the inside cover was showing. Inscribed on the inside of the cover was the following:

Mike - Keep hope alive.

Jesse Jackson

My roomate is borrowing my con law book for the semester. He was on a flight from New Orleans to New York and got bumped to first class. Sitting across the aisle was Rev. Jackson. He took the opportunity to get the only thing he had on him signed. It just happened to be my con law book. He rightfully realized that a message to him in my con law book wasn’t going to fly so so he asked Jesse to sign the book for me.

What blows my mind is that the good rev could have said anything. He could have said “good luck,” or “fight the good fight.” But instead he chose “keep hope alive.”

How did he know that simple message was exactly what I needed?

Everything will be fine, Jesse said so.

I just opened up a book I am relying heavily on for a paper I am writing. Unsure where the passage I was looking for was located, I let the book fall open randomly and there, tucked in the crease, was a fortune (presumably from a chinese meal I had recently - at least I hope so). It read:

A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he gives up

Whew… I was about ready to give up on these exams (and as a result law school) until I read that.

Seriously.

A psychology professor at Tufts recently copmpleted a study that showed that diverse groups perform better than homogenous groups when it comes to decision making. The key finding is much more interesting…this is due largely to dramatic differences in the way whites behave in diverse groups–changes that occur even before group members begin to interact.

Whites on diverse juries cited more case facts, made fewer mistakes in recalling facts and evidence, and pointed out missing evidence more frequently than did those on all-white juries…

To the guy that sat next to me in the evidence exam last semester, you owe me a beer for the extra points you got as a result of my presence.

The sun is filled wtih ice and gives no warmth at all
The sky was never blue
The stars are raindrops searching for a place to fall
And I never cared for you.

I Never Cared For You from the album Teatro

Someone just said to me:

“You’re almost done. Keep your eye on the prize.”

Can someone explain to me what exactly this prize is?

First I just want to thank God for giving me the skills to finish my first ever Thursday crossword. With out his grace none of this would be possible. I want to give an in come in to my grandma Nani. I’ma hold the flame. I also want to give a smoove shout out to all my immortal crossword thugs:

jLou

logoP

And…

The Nefarious tBone.

Thanks for bringing me on and giving me a chance to do my thing. Let’s make this paper.

You just can’t keep a good frog down.