Episode 42- The Miracle of December - True Story

I had a dream to attend law school, but i had no money to pay for it. I usually do not test well on standardize exams, and i was so terrified of taking the LSAT that i was willing to go to Law school in Australia (LSAT is not a requirement for admission into some Law Schools in Australia). When i finally decided to do Law school in America, i was not banking on a good LSAT scores for scholarships. Instead, my plan was to find a great paying job, get  a roommate, and save every penny i could. I would save enough money to at least put myself through my first year of school without taking out student loans. I put that plan out there and God said “Yeah right” and laughed out loud! Everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong. I did not find that great paying job and i ended up moving in with a lesbian couple who thought it would be fun to hit on me from time to time.

Plan A did not work out so I returned to my plan B which was to score high on the LSAT test. I took the LSAT for the first time, and did horrifyingly bad. I took it again for the second time and did worst than i did the first time. At this point, to say i was devastated would be an understatement. I had put all my eggs in one basket - The basket that said “LAW SCHOOL”. I was stuck in between the point of giving up and the subsequent feeling of “and then what?” Every other option felt wrong, and the only option that felt right also seemed impossible. I had simply come to the end of myself, and couldn't see any path forward.

I had no other option than to keep going so i took the LSAT again. I poured my soul and passion into my personal statements and submitted my applications to various Law Schools. About a month later, the LSAT scores posted, and the acceptance letters started flooding my inbox. I had done better on the LSAT the third time than the two previous times.

I was offered very  generous scholarships by some of the schools i got into, but keep in mind that i literally had no money so what would seem generous to the average Joe, wasn't so generous to me. I needed more money! I wrote a very powerful letter to all the schools i got into, thanked them for the incredible opportunity, stated my case and then asked them for more money. They all replied with an increased scholarship offer. I then took the offer from the school which had offered me the most money and sent it to the other schools to match it, and the renegotiation begun. I simply sat back while i watched the law schools compete with one another over me. I was simply the intermediary. After several phone calls and email exchanges even one school that had initially offered me $0 in scholarship was ready to give me $28k in annual scholarship ( A total of $84K for the duration of my program).

I finally settled on a school in Florida. I received a phone call from the associate dean of that school. He had called to find out why i had decided not to attend his school. I explained to him that the scholarship that the school had offered me, while very genereous was still not enough for me. There was a school in Atlanta that had beat their offer. He agreed to match the offer that i got from the school in Atlanta. I replied with an offer that would make me change my mind and attend his school. To my amazement, he agreed to honor it!

I literally went from a place where i thought i could not gain admission into any law school to gaining acceptance into multiple schools. I went from a place where i thought no school would  be “nice” enough to ever offer me a scholarship to gaining multiple scholarship offers. And i went from a place where i thought i didn't have enough scholarships to having the final say on my scholarship offer.

That is a miracle to me!

I am forever a humble student of stoic philosophy. Listen to the amazing lesson on trusting the universe, even in the midst of chaos i learned through this process HERE.