Getting my Life in Order

I got three main categories stuck on my mind right now: Law School, credit card debts, relationship issues.

As far as credit card debt goes, right now I've got a hefty one. I have finished writing up a repayment schedule and it's got good news and bad news. The bad news, after my contract work with sony, I'll have absolutely no cash. Good news: I'll be credit card debt free. It's definitely a strict budget and I haven't accounted for finance charges so it's really a rough draft contingent on how much I actually work and that I don't get sick.

Relationship wise, frankly I feel I have nothing left for me in California. Family is family and they'll always be there no matter how rocky the relationship is, but in terms of friendships and romance...I just don't know. I feel that I purposefully neglected forming strong relationships with friends in Irvine out of some fear of being that person who forgets their friends from high school just cause they left. It was a big mistake on my part because I don't really feel that those friendships I prioritized were that strong in the long run. Needless to say I feel pretty alone sometimes and that I'm in a position where I can't get full understanding sometimes.

Which gets me to law school. It's been a month since I was accepted to the part time program at the William Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii Manoa. Since then I've been rejected at Berkeley, UCLA, USC, UC Irvine, Duke, USD and have been placed on the waitlist for USF and Santa Clara University. My only other acceptance was to the McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific with a scholarship package of $12k as well as first year books and $12k for the remainder of the years contingent on securing a spot at the top 30%. Even though it's a part time offer, I'm pretty set on going to Hawaii.

My folks are pretty hesitant about me going and I'm trying to pinpoint what their issue is. I understand their argument about it being a move and the difficulty in going back home. I think it stems from the fact that cousin Ralph has been at UCLA and suffers from homesickness quite a bit. However, I do not get homesick; throughout my time in Irvine I rarely felt the need or desire to drive back home and often disliked commuting back and forth all the time. They're really pushing me to visit the school to "make sure" I want to go there. I think there's an underlying issue that U of H isn't a big name like Berkeley or Harvard and deep down they're upset they can't brag about it to their friends who, like themselves, have no understanding of law schools and the legal market. Which is also to my benefit. While Hawaii respectably sits ranked 72 out of 195 law schools, placing it in the tier 2 category, most t2 schools are regional in nature in terms of employment aspects. So my actual stay is more along the lines of 5-8 years rather than 4.

I have given this a lot of thought. I reviewed the employment statistics coupled with the average salaries of law firms in the region. I coupled this with a projection of how much federal loans I will be using to complete my 4 years of school, which at worst case scenario comes to about $170k before adding in the interest.

I've considered how I plan to repay this if I take up a career in private practice, but the main path I want to go is the public service sector. Seeing as I will be taking federal loans they have income based repayment plans which will limit your monthly payment depending on your earnings as well as a public service debt forgiveness option where the government will pay the remaining balance and interest after 10 years working in a non profit or local/federal/military career.

Another option I have been looking into is working as a JAG (Judge Advocate General) for the military which would qualify for the debt forgiveness, in addition they have incentive bonus for JAG officers which I think is around 20k per year of service. They start off at 0-3 upon bar passage with an auto promote to 0-4 after 6 months which seems alright in terms of pay.

I think the thing I'm trying to convey is that I've done a lot of thinking. I'm not going in with wild expectations of making top of the class and transferring to Harvard, though it would be awesome. I'm just getting ready to start school and be awesome. My folks want to go with me in July to visit the school, I mean I'm already set so if they want to give me a free trip to Hawaii, I'm down.

What I do need to take care of is:
securing my housing (i sent in an application and deposit)
finding a way to transport my items
getting my vision corrected again
getting a new notebook