ps critique plea Forum

[kblueboi]

i've had a very difficult time with this. perhaps more than most since my life lacks a singular interesting event to connect with my desire to go to law school. i know it's late and i know this ps is pretty bad, but any help would be much appreciated.

My parents didn't have to ask; they knew. Not once in four years did they ask for my grades. "What's the point? It's not like you're pursuing a major you're passionate about. If we send you back, we'll probably have this conversation next year. If you want to graduate, you're going to have to do it on your own dime. It's time you find your own way" they declared. In the perfect clarity of hindsight, I look back at this moment and know with certainty that this was what had to be done to not only forge the qualities necessary to mature into a responsible adult, but to ignite some ambition that would guide me to the possibility of a vocation. I just didn't know that then. I made promises, even threatened, but years of similar pleas had hardened their resolve. I could hear the finality in their voice. And so, I reluctantly turned to the only thing available for to me to do. It would be in employment that I'd eventually find salvation from the apathy that had plagued me all these years.

It wasn't so bad at first. A little pocket money goes a long way in quelling the fears and anxieties of the college dropout. The persisting problem was that my duties were robotic and hardly compelling. However, work had a curious effect on the way I approached them. I did not want to be fired and therefore I tried hard. In school I cared about the grades I received in an abstract sense. If I didn't do well though, there were no immediate consequences. But it wasn't only in the specter of punishment that I found motivation. For the first time, I found myself seeking out the satisfaction of a job well done. Tasks that had previously been met with the same degree of excitement as which they had been doled out, were now greeted with enthusiasm and completed with gusto. Work had provided a construct in which to tame my poor habits. In the mundane, I had discovered the motivation to make something of myself. What I lacked at that point was a direction. I needed to channel my newfound desire into something more meaningful. With diploma in hand - to the delight of my parents, I had completed my degree while continuing to work full time - I decided it was time to move on.

This time I found employment with an eye towards the future, though it was not abundantly clear if I'd discover what I was looking for at a law firm. After all, assisting attorneys in the pursuit and maintenance of patents, is hardly the stuff of compelling narrative. It was a lot of paperwork, reading and research, but as I became more familiar with the work, I was eventually able to separate the essence from the formalities. In earning a patent, the attorney successfully navigates and interprets the morass of laws. He must communicate effectively and parse the issues to its component parts. Most importantly, he is an advocate for the client; an avatar whom the client would embody if he, himself, knew the law. It is in these elements that I can see the possibilities of a career. The law has the attraction of not only satiating my intellectual curiosity, but of deriving satisfaction from aiding those in need. At [insert law school] I hope to begin my journey toward the realization of this career.

My parents made the difficult decision of setting me off on my own. I was unhappy about it then, but I know now that I could not have come to this point in my life without the requisite skills and ambition that employment has afforded. I have gained an intimacy of the real world that most students straight out of college only know through maxims. I look forward to taking the next step by approaching law school with the same vigor and discipline as I've approached employment.