What qualities do you possess as a prospective law student ...



Personal Statement

Down 6-4 in the bottom of the seventh inning, I stepped up to bat and hit a homerun to win the 1989 Coral Gables-South Miami little league championship. My panic-stricken teammates wiped away their nervous tears as I was awarded the game ball. On it, my father later wrote: “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you…” Like Kipling, my father did not finish the poem there. Truly important lessons can only be understood one at a time; and this was only my first lesson in a life-long education.

I was 14 years old. I had been fighting this mighty Wahoo for two hours by now. I was reeling it closer to the boat as my father readied the gaff. I saw the fish’s bioluminescent scales rising towards the surface. A quick shimmer of light reached the surface and the line went slack. It was gone. I cried aloud and cursed the fish as my father hugged me. It took time for me to understand what he meant when he told me: “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two imposters just the same…” When I came to understand what my father meant, I began to love that fish. I loved it the same way I loved every fish I have fought since, those I caught and those that got away. All leaders must deal with failure. It is no end though. Neither is success. They are simply curves along a path.

Throughout my youth, I read voraciously to nourish my mind and played every sport I could to exercise my body. Unlike the stomach, the mind only grows hungrier when fed. My parents whet my appetite with every book, puzzle and comic book they could find, expanding my knowledge from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Fountainhead to Spiderman and the X-Men.

It can be difficult for parents to push a mind in one direction without pulling it away from another. My upbringing provided me the capacity to: “talk with crowds yet keep your virtue, or walk with kings- nor lose the common touch.” I would have lost touch with my friends and peers had my family limited me to purely academic pursuits. I learned to flow effortlessly between social classes because I was raised without regard to them.

Attorneys may be the last members of American aristocracy. Anyone holding a position of power and respect is going to be subject to forces trying to influence him or her. If an attorney is swayed, he has already fallen. My family raised me to respect others, but to never let others think for me. I avoid making premature conclusions and steer clear of mental shortcuts, for in these mistakes we find ourselves both in error and indignant about our error.

Thorough research and preparation give me the confidence to maintain faith in my conclusions in the face of disagreement. More difficult, I am secure enough to change my mind and agree with others when they are correct. “If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowances for their doubting too”, taught me that history measures leaders as much by the conclusions they reach as by the criticisms they heed.

It seems that those who follow define a leader, so I cannot tell you if I am one. I can only concentrate on making the correct decision in each choice I come to. This is all that I can control. I cannot force others to follow. I can only proceed thoughtfully and deliberately and leave a path. My path heads through the University of Chicago Law School and to the forefront of my chosen career. With an independent mind and a passionate pursuit of truth and knowledge, I am dedicated to elevating the honor and reputation of the legal profession.

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