Bar Exam Exile, New Jersey style
I was born and raised in central New Jersey (around exit 138, thank you very much). It was a nice place to grow up. Or something approximating a nice place to grow up when you're 15 and it's 1988 and you realize that you're gay.
Anyway, my family still lives there, so I have a certain affinity for the state. They've been supportive of me going to law school, and they already ask me legal questions that I don't know the answers to, and I figure it's only going to get worse, which is probably the reason not to take the New Jersey bar, but I thought they'd be crushed, so well, what's one more day of essays?
But I've been exiled by the New Jersey bar examiners.
I am convinced that I am the only person who is taking the New Jersey bar exam at the Birchwood Manor. I am convinced that the other candidate numbers that are listed to take the exam at BM, as I like to refer to it, are shams, straw numbers made up to make my exile seem legit.
Now, my grandmother tells me the Birchwood Manor is a lovely place. That may be true. She's eaten there several times. It looks like a lovely place, sort of like where I had my bat mitzvah, which was sort of like a mini-wedding. Which, quite frankly, makes it feel a little weird to be taking the bar there. The bar is, umm, not so much like a big fancy party with passed hors d'oeuvres and a nice Viennese table. And I will not be wearing my bat mitzvah dress, which I am sorry to say I believe involved tafetta. Peach tafetta.
Anyway, the Birchwood Manor is a hike from Philadelphia. It is off of Exit 14 of the New Jersey Turnpike, which makes it, like 100 miles from the Pennsylvania bar exam site. I must have pissed someone off. Seriously.
All the other Philly-NJ bar takers I have asked -- and I have asked quite a few -- are in Somerset (exit 10), which is a scant 70 miles from Valley Forge. I mean, still a hike, but, umm, less of a hike. More like a long walk.
As I imagine it, I'm the only one taking the bar at BM. I'm going to walk in, and it will be just me, all alone with my essay questions. Maybe I'll wear my party dress after all.
Anyway, my family still lives there, so I have a certain affinity for the state. They've been supportive of me going to law school, and they already ask me legal questions that I don't know the answers to, and I figure it's only going to get worse, which is probably the reason not to take the New Jersey bar, but I thought they'd be crushed, so well, what's one more day of essays?
But I've been exiled by the New Jersey bar examiners.
I am convinced that I am the only person who is taking the New Jersey bar exam at the Birchwood Manor. I am convinced that the other candidate numbers that are listed to take the exam at BM, as I like to refer to it, are shams, straw numbers made up to make my exile seem legit.
Now, my grandmother tells me the Birchwood Manor is a lovely place. That may be true. She's eaten there several times. It looks like a lovely place, sort of like where I had my bat mitzvah, which was sort of like a mini-wedding. Which, quite frankly, makes it feel a little weird to be taking the bar there. The bar is, umm, not so much like a big fancy party with passed hors d'oeuvres and a nice Viennese table. And I will not be wearing my bat mitzvah dress, which I am sorry to say I believe involved tafetta. Peach tafetta.
Anyway, the Birchwood Manor is a hike from Philadelphia. It is off of Exit 14 of the New Jersey Turnpike, which makes it, like 100 miles from the Pennsylvania bar exam site. I must have pissed someone off. Seriously.
All the other Philly-NJ bar takers I have asked -- and I have asked quite a few -- are in Somerset (exit 10), which is a scant 70 miles from Valley Forge. I mean, still a hike, but, umm, less of a hike. More like a long walk.
As I imagine it, I'm the only one taking the bar at BM. I'm going to walk in, and it will be just me, all alone with my essay questions. Maybe I'll wear my party dress after all.
posted by Me at 12:03 AM
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