As thousand of law students are poised to descend into the tunnel that is bar exam preparation, I am beginning my work, affectionately known to those in my immediate circle as “bar season.” We are in this together, my students and me. It's a sobering endeavor for both of us. To the graduating classes of new lawyers in training, I want to offer some perspective about purpose.

It did not occur to me until very deep into my first year of law school that some of my classmates did not want to be there. I don't say this in the dismissive sense. I mean they openly admitted they truly did not have any desire to be in law school. Coming from where I did, against some serious adversity, I saw the opportunity to go to law school through the lens of my own yearning. Didn't everyone there want it so bad it hurt?

When I was applying to law school, inspired to overcome the lifelong obstacles placed in my path, I wrote my law school admission essay about the parallels between my pursuit of a formal education and a solid gray concrete building I used to pass on my way to school while earning my undergraduate degree. College was, for me, an imperative in a life with very few resources and very little in the way of prospects. One day, passing the building on my usual route to school, I noticed that someone painted windows on its previously windowless exterior. The windows were beautiful arched blazons of blue aqua. When I first saw the windows I felt awe, and a degree of recognition.