So. Its been a hectic few days. I'll begin first with one of the dumbest things i have ever done: getting really, really drunk and not being able to go to work be/c at 6am. I was still drunk. Yeah. I was in so much pain - basically, I have no business going out like that be/c I just flat out cannot handle it. Not at all. Then the trip to Milwaukee. Lets just say that Milwaukee may be beautiful to some people but to me, it wasn't so great. The Marquette campus is very nice and all but the building that houses the law school was really old and really run down - also, the fact that its going to be very difficult for me to get a job in chicago if I go to Marquette (despite it being a "better" school) makes me theorize that my entire vacation and summer break will be spent networking about 100 miles away - the career services guy that I spoke with was very honest and said that Chicago isn't a part of the region that Marquette belongs to (whereas I thought region = midwest, I guess it doesn't). So thats that. I don't want to be a lawyer in Wisconsin and don't want to have to work so hard to network back where I ideally want to stay anyway. The differences between the two schools seem so marginal to me that this is the type of factor I need to weight in making my decision.
Milwaukee itself...lets just say that I have been on a smaller budget since I figured out how in debt I will be after I graduate from law school - so Eduardo and I stayed at the La Quinta Inn. Do not ever stay there. I literally pulled it off a travel website and 77.89 later, we were in the like, Villa Park of Milwaukee, and it wasn't pretty. Driving 20 minutes each way brought no other food options than a...pizza hut. And they were out of breadsticks. I mean, breadsticks at the pizza hut are the bloody silver lining but no, nothing. And the guy was rude and if I hadn't been so starving, I would have left and ate gas station fare but I was desperate. Eduardo, upon seeing the hotel, muttered that "this is what we will be staying in the rest of our life. I guess I need to get adjusted." It's no secret his family has much more money than mine and he is much more accustomed to 5 star accomodations even if he's in like, Carbondale, whereas my family camped primarily (tents, sleeping bags, the whole deal). Then he says " I better go to business school." Because I have made no qualms about going to law school not to get rich (that is very, very foolish when you consider how much it costs and also, the average salary of attorneys who do not practice in NYC) - I mean, my dream job still is to work with the Cook County States Attorney and those positions are about as hard as the big firm positions, and they pay about as much as I make now as a paralegal, give or take. It was a big "reality" trip for us - I doubt Eduardo will sacrifice his goals of grad school and teaching in higher ed, but I think that upon seeing how the true middle class lives, he had a bit of shock.
So...I am back in Chicago...happy and very, very tired.
Milwaukee itself...lets just say that I have been on a smaller budget since I figured out how in debt I will be after I graduate from law school - so Eduardo and I stayed at the La Quinta Inn. Do not ever stay there. I literally pulled it off a travel website and 77.89 later, we were in the like, Villa Park of Milwaukee, and it wasn't pretty. Driving 20 minutes each way brought no other food options than a...pizza hut. And they were out of breadsticks. I mean, breadsticks at the pizza hut are the bloody silver lining but no, nothing. And the guy was rude and if I hadn't been so starving, I would have left and ate gas station fare but I was desperate. Eduardo, upon seeing the hotel, muttered that "this is what we will be staying in the rest of our life. I guess I need to get adjusted." It's no secret his family has much more money than mine and he is much more accustomed to 5 star accomodations even if he's in like, Carbondale, whereas my family camped primarily (tents, sleeping bags, the whole deal). Then he says " I better go to business school." Because I have made no qualms about going to law school not to get rich (that is very, very foolish when you consider how much it costs and also, the average salary of attorneys who do not practice in NYC) - I mean, my dream job still is to work with the Cook County States Attorney and those positions are about as hard as the big firm positions, and they pay about as much as I make now as a paralegal, give or take. It was a big "reality" trip for us - I doubt Eduardo will sacrifice his goals of grad school and teaching in higher ed, but I think that upon seeing how the true middle class lives, he had a bit of shock.
So...I am back in Chicago...happy and very, very tired.