That's all she wrote

Today I received a license to practice law in Wisconsin and can thus cause immeasurable destruction at my whim. Thus ends slightly more than three years of legal education and formally casts me out into the real world. It's been a good ride. I learned to work harder than I ever have before, discovered a profession I love, met some of the best friends I've ever had, and met a whole lot more that I consider to be unmitigated douchebags.

However, in the end, the good things far outweighed the bad and in this moment of nostalgia, I kind of wish that law school lasted four years. This was a period of transformation that I know turned me into a better person on all levels and I'm infinitely thankful that the UW sent that small-envelope acceptance letter and saved me from a life of mediocrity in the professional wolf wrestling circuit, middleweight division.

People make alot of jokes about lawyers being greedy, unsavory, obnoxious people. Regardless of how many Enron executives, Duke Lacrosse prosecutors and Howard K. Sterns tarnish the legal profession, I'll always be able to look on my friends and colleagues with eternal respect. We're a band of brothers, baptised in the Socratic Method, late nights at the library, a zillion legal writing revisions, borderline alcoholism and fire. I don't remember the fire, but I can only assume that a certain professor, (who I'll call "Cliff T." for privacy reasons), at one time lit us all on fire and then made us forget with an Indonesian amnesia potion. Man, that guy is a badass.

So as I march into the real world, power to destroy in hand, I have to think back on that very first morning, at 7:45...walking into a huge lecture hall for a legal writing introduction with a man whose ego more than filled the hall. I see a young, timid kid who was finally living the dream he's had since seventh grade. And in this memory that now seems ancient I know one thing: I'm a lawyer, and I could totally kick that kid's ass.

Godspeed.