Wow. 12 years ago, if you had told eight-year-old Amira that her sudden exclamation of “I wanna be a lawyer!” during career day would translate into a life-long passion for the law and public service, she probably would have looked up at you and said “….I don’t know half of those words”. But here I am today, 20 years old and preparing to take the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) this Saturday (September 8th, 2018). It all comes down to this. I am trying not to put too much pressure onto this moment, but it truly is backed by a lifetime of anticipation. Every step I have taken up until this moment has been guided by the knowledge that one day, I wanted to attain a law degree to better serve the communities who need it most. And now it’s here. So this reflection is more of a “pre-reflection”, if you will. It serves as a page through which I am flushing out any frustration, anxiety, or hesitation surrounding the LSAT. I began studying two months ago, while working several jobs and preparing for campus leadership positions. In the back of my mind, through countless passages and logic “games”, I have had to remember why I am doing this in the first place: because the people I grew up around did not have access to representation. Because there are still people in this country losing their jobs for discriminatory reasons. Because homelessness is still running rampant throughout this nation. And ultimately, if I want to have a hand in changing any of this, it starts with this law degree.
