The aim of this letter is to relate the story of my academic career thus far, so that you might get an accurate impression of what kind of person I am. If my aim is true, I am sure you will have every reason to grant my admission to your school of law. To begin, I must reveal that I was a terrible student in high school. I did reasonably well in art and music classes, but for the most part I paid closer attention to my own thoughts than to the material presented in classes, and I hadn't the least bit of motivation to even begin my assignments, let alone complete them. Luckily, I tested well and the more observant among my teachers could guess that I wasn’t a complete idiot, and I managed to graduate with my class despite a lack of any serious involvement in academics. However, once I moved on to City College and left all the pep rallies and lunch periods and disciplinarians behind, I very quickly realized that it wasn’t the actual education part of school that I found distasteful. Still, being naturally skeptical of the system I had now chosen to take advantage of, I didn’t give much credence to the common aspirations of making money or becoming some kind of a big shot. My only desire was to cultivate an awareness of the world, and to gain a mastery over my talents and capacities for growth. Thus, I had found my motivation, and I rode it all the way through a successful junior year at Berkeley. Yet, as I learned more about the world and about myself, so did I come to be disturbed by them both. It was (and still is) a challenging time for a young person to be discovering the ways of the world. I began to see myself as like a cog in some diabolical Machine, and as I worked more efficiently, so did the machine come closer to achieving its own malicious ends. My motivation flagged, and my interests wandered to the arts and to the self-indulgent chaos of independent study. My academic work took a back seat, and I made no designs for post-graduate work or a suitable career. I simply took my diploma and returned home, confused and scared of what I had discovered.

A few months later I took the LSAT, not because I was especially interested in law, but because I needed to somehow satisfy my bruised ego after watching my academic work slip. For work I took a position with Environmental Landscape Services, Inc. (ELS); a construction firm based in my hometown. At this particular time, ELS was in a bit of trouble. The office was pretty much the same as it had been when Mr. Lefebvre founded the company in 1988, with nothing more than two trucks and a lot of determination. In the summer of 2003, however, ELS had expanded to 20 trucks, countless pieces of heavy equipment, and approximately 50 employees – and it showed no sign of slowing down. As you can probably tell, the construction end of the business was doing just fine. What they needed at this point was somebody they could trust to make sense out of the business end of the construction, and I, being a reasonably intelligent friend of the family, was that somebody. They handed me control of the office as I educated myself on the techniques of small business, and since that time gross income tripled while profitability doubled. Furthermore, in order to communicate what had to be done to make the business more efficient, I was forced to overcome my naturally reticent nature and become a more outspoken person, (one quality I had not developed as a student, and that I now look forward to applying in my future studies.) I presently see my success in this area as evidence for: 1) my ability to organize a large amount of new information in an efficient and practical manner, 2) my sense of initiative and adaptability, and most importantly, 3) my good-natured confidence, which inspires good faith. For, it required a great deal of faith in my character and abilities for the Lefebvre family to entrust me with the financial well being of their company and its employees, and I am proud to have satisfied that trust.

“The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing." (Sir Edmund Burke, attributed) During my time with ELS I never gave up my original goal, though I was now pursuing it independently of the academy. In this pursuit I eventually realized that the “Machine” which had frightened me so much was in fact an essential part of my world, and that it therefore deserved to be respected and understood as such. There had been a time when I believed that the more prominent a position one held in the Machine; (i.e. attorney, aristocrat, politician) the more synonymous one was with its maliciousness. However, I came to see that we all play an equally important part in this system, and that one’s position is not so important as what one does with that position.

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” (Theodore Roosevelt)
It was no more than one week ago that I came to see what I can do, what I have, and where I am. That is, I can go to a school of law, I have the qualifications necessary to go to a quite good one, and I happen to be running right up against the application deadlines. The story I have related to you thus far is one of motivation, and how my particular motivations have brought my words here before you today. I have always known myself to be an honorable person with a deep understanding of language and an uncommon sensitivity for the truth in all its forms. Following from these facts, I have always known in the back of my mind that I would make a fine lawyer, though I never before had the clear motivation to become one. However, I can presently see that my motivations are leading me to take action; to jump headlong into the Machine and see what makes it work. In closing, I will step outside the metaphor to make my intentions clear. I want to study Constitutional Law and make a positive contribution to the system that affects our world. I believe I have been through these internal struggles in order to see with clarity and strength of mind that this is my destiny, and that I have a duty to live rightly by it.