1 year later....still glad u went to law school?

[mapit]

Quotations

• "We who have come back, by the aid of many lucky chances or miracles -- whatever one may choose to call them -- we know; the best of us did not return."
• "We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
• "Nietzsche's words, 'He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.'"
• "When we are no longer able to change a situation — just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer — we are challenged to change ourselves"
• "Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him - mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp."
• "We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing a something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering."
• "It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life — daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual."
• "Man is capable of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the better if necessary."
• "Set me like a seal upon thy heart, love is as strong as death." (Cf. Song of Solomon 8:6)
• "We have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips."
• "A man who for years had thought he had reached the absolute limit of all possible suffering now found that suffering had no limits, and that he could suffer still more, and more intensely."
• "Woe to him, when the day of his dreams finally came, found it to be so different from all that he had longed for!"
• "We were not hoping for happiness --- And yet we were not prepared for unhappiness."
• "Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!"
• "An incurable psychotic individual may lose his usefulness but yet retain the dignity of a human being. This is my psychiatric credo."

[head phone]

t --> -t

Your signature caught my attention, driven! The T-symmetry, the symmetry of physical laws under a time-reversal transformation (replacing t by −t in all the equations). All of the accepted laws of physics exhibit T-symmetry. To say simply, phenomena are reversible in time. By common sense, you might think that T-symmetry is obviously violated: we cannot remember the future, eggs are much easier to break than to reconstruct; in general, entropy increases. This is called the second law of thermodynamics, but in fact is not related in any obvious way to T-symmetry. The second law can be entirely attributed to the "initial conditions" of the universe, rather than the laws governing evolution. Decoherence in quantum mechanics is a similar phenomenon. Many physicists believe T-symmetry is violated. This is because experiments have shown that CPT-symmetry holds, but that CP-symmetry is broken. It can be shown that if CP-symmetry is broken, there must be a balancing T-symmetry violation in order to preserve CPT-symmetry.

However, there is no consensus as to the exact nature of the T-symmetry violation. Gravity is a prime contender: the fact that gravity is only attractive, not repulsive, may point to a violation of T-symmetry. Black holes appear to violate T-symmetry: there are significant differences between black hole formation and evaporation (via Hawking radiation). Particle physicists are conducting experiments looking for T-symmetry violation in high-energy nuclear reactions.

[mousie]

[...] It is practically impossible to get residency spots in the highly competitive specialties like Radiology, Orthopedics and Dermatology being an IMG, US or non-US one. You end up as a general family practice physician or internal medicine resident, specialties which pay much less than the highly sought-after specialties such as Surgery, Anesthesiology, Obstetrics/gynecology, etc.

Equally important, almost all training slots filled by IMGs are in teaching hospitals in large urban areas that have traditionally served large numbers of minorities, uninsured, and low-income patients. It is a bit easier for US-IMGs compared to non-US IMGs. The latter, for example, who usually are on J-1 Visas (with 80% of these physicians actually staying in the US) are compelled to practice in designated rural or inner city physician shortage areas in order to have the "2-year return" requirement for J-1 visa waived. Both the initial training location and the subsequent service locations of IMGs frequently put them in minority communities where other doctors are scarce. In essence IMGs provide primary care to poor and underserved populations, with many inner-city hospitals in the U.S. relying almost exclusively on IMGs to provide services to America's poor.

Honey, I've been a dirty stinky Indian all my life and I can tell ya it's not like that ... several friends of mine (poor, stinky Indian b i t c h e s, if you like!) have been able to get some pretty damn good residencies in the US.

A very dear friend of mine just recently began Rheumatology fellowship at a quite good hospital after having finished the 3-year Internal Medicine residency. It'll take 3 years for the fellowship to be completed and my friend is looking at some $200,000 per annum - not bad at all for someone who lived all the time in a city like Calcutta or Bombay!

Pretty succinct and effective, harrisons!

[b o r e a l i s]

That's a very good idea. People should really consider completing degrees like MA and MS in an appropriate area of study. My buddy, for instance, did an MIS -- which is part of the business school, differing from CS programs and emphasizing management coursework and business computing courses. He found a position as database analyst and is responsible for maintaining key databases and worksheets for reporting and analytical purposes grossing some $60K a year.

ad astra, if we'd begin to showcase our buddies' achievements here this thread would be like 100 pages long (it's 40 as of now, I believe?) Case in point, a friend of mine just got a job as business intelligence analyst earning some $70K a year. He has a B.A. in Business Administration and some pretty strong computer software skills (Combined Theater, ArcGIS 8.3, Pathfinder, etc). Granted, he had also some experience in the health care strategic planning that helped him get the job. The point I am making, however, is that it does not take some highly refined individual to get these type of positions..

[publiek]

Are you trying to demean another profession, so you can make yourself feel better about your own? Heart surgeons, for example, make dramatic differences in people's lives on a daily basis. Only someone as deluded as you can think otherwise.

I don't think the poster was trying to demean any profession... it is a fact, however, that there's only so much you can do in many, many, many medical cases!

[Mina]

I think this entire thread is misguided.  How one feels about something is a shadow of several interacting inner forces.

For example, Person A loves law school because he/she enjoy the people there, get good grades, or developed some "meaning" out of there lives in the law.

Person B loves law school because they have no loans and will open there own office.

Person C/D loves/hates law school because blah blah.

The thing is, the word "because" can be used to justify any state of mind or existence. So in one sense, person B can hate law school by changing there reaction to its stimulus from a positive one to a negative one.  Instead of looking at no loans, they can focus on lost oppertunies, annoying professors, lack of time, stress,  etc.

Likewise, a state of mind is in no way shaped by reasons or feelings or personalities or statistics, but by attitudes and wills.

One can will there attitude to become X, Y, or Z, as we are free to choose the frame of mind in which we interpret our existence and surroundings. X can be love of law, Y can hatred of it, and Z can be "open."

When this threads asks was is "one still glad?," it assumes that the question can be answered from emotion or experience or reason, but in reality none suffice, since the question can only be answered from one's will.

When a person's will is strong, there surroundings bend to it, even feelings of being glad or sad hold no sway ovr their choice.

For example, Person A hates everything about being a lawyer and law school very much. This person decides he will use his hatred to his advantage, so instead of dwelling on negativity, he will seek to over-come law school. e.g., "Even though I hate this stuff, I'm still going to go through it, suffering is part of life, and my suffering will be a springboard to greatness regardless fo where or why I suffer"

In essence, this question is asking what type of will do you have-- a strong one, a herd-like one, a special one, a bright one, a dark one? I have observed each answer is nonsensical,  but a small few address the root of the question.

[Brenda]

I just joined this forum because I wanted to hear what law students thought of law school. I've been putting it off for years and it finally may be my time, but is this really what I want? Why do I want it? Can I commit the time and mental energy? For that matter, do I still have enough mental energy?

I guess I could read the last 44 pages, but I'd rather hear what anyone had to say specifically to my musings.

I'm 48. Is this a commitment I'm going to be glad I made?

[OldCraig]

Brenda,
   Don't do it.

Signed,
OldCraig

[in lieu of]

I am a foreign doctor (originally from Iraq) who was laid off several years back by my employer who sponsored my J-1 visa (I won the lottery fortunately that is how I got the residency) I remember it very well how hard it was to find employment - any type of employment - I guess it was because of my language skills that I got a job to survive during those hard years (I was employed by a contractor in need of translation services from Dari to English - Dari is the name given to classical Persian poetry and court language, as well as to Persian dialects spoken in Afghanistan. Various dialects of Dari are also spoken by a few people in Iran and by many in Pakistan.

So basically this Dari language is Persian?

[Brenda]

Please Old Craig, tell me more.

Brenda