You know those dreams you have, the ones when you wake up,
you think, “Wow, I wish that really happened…” Well, I lived that moment,
several times in fact, this summer. Only it wasn’t a dream. I lived it. So many things happened where I stopped and
thought, “I can’t believe this is reality.” It was one of two of the most
perfect summers of my life. I say two because last summer was pretty perfect,
for a lot of reasons. I found out who I am, I had a lot of fun, and I grew into
the person I had always wanted to be. A lot of things were responsible, and a
few people. One person especially, because they helped me realize my law dream
and push me in the ways that I needed to succeed. But alas, I have had multitudes of supporters
in that department, and I absolutely cannot thank all of you enough. But let’s
get back to the heart of the matter, this summer.
On May 11, before summer even began, and exactly one month
to the day after receiving an email from Chase Law School stating they had
received my application and would be getting back to me in four weeks – I got
another email with the subject line “NKU – Congrats!”
I. Freaked. Out
I was at work and received the email on my phone. I was
speechless for about all of two seconds. Then I just shouted, “I got in!!!!” to
the entire bank lobby. So my customer in
the drive thru, and the customer that Randi was waiting on in the lobby, ended
up having bad timing. They had to wait as two seemingly retarded blonde chicks
decided to jump up and down and hug frantically in celebration mode. Then it
was past time to switch back to reality. “Thank you, have a nice day!”
The first thing I did, obviously, was call my brother. He
didn’t seem as thrilled as I’d hoped at the time, but he’s coming around.
Slowly. Then I called my parents. They were excited. Then I sent out a mass
text to my nearest and dearest friends and family telling them the good news.
It was a surreal moment in my life. A day I thought would never come, when I
could actually announce with certainty my admission into a school of law.
Before this time, I had given up on it. Well, not entirely,
but I thought that it was probably best I did. I knew my LSAT scores weren’t
adequate, and I honestly felt that taking the LSAT again would be more than
excruciating after my first two attempts. And you can only take it twice in
three years. It just didn’t seem like the dream was going to fall into place.
So, I started looking for other options. Not that I didn’t love working at the
bank, because I did. But it was never going to pay me what I needed to live on,
and it was never going to give me the opportunity to move up and be the
successful person I had always dreamed of being. Or if it did, I would probably
be near retirement.
I applied for a marketing job in Hazard that paid pretty
well. I got an interview, thought I had the job, but they sent me a letter a
week later telling me they had found a better candidate. Ugh. Sadness. I
actually had a degree for that one.
So. I knew I loved kids. I knew I loved being around kids. I
had once thought of being a teacher. Why not? I began getting feedback from
some important people in my life and their thoughts on the subject, which
rendered mixed reviews from all. Everyone knew my real dream and they didn’t
want to discourage me but they weren’t going to lie and tell me they thought I
would make a bad teacher either. So. I looked into programs. I had always loved
LMU – the area, the school, and the feel. They had an 18-month Masters program
that would allow me to teach with my music business degree. Again, why not?
One week after I had decided I would try to apply to the
program, I got my acceptance into Chase, the school I had really wanted to go
to. I knew it was meant to be. At this point, I can really only thank God, my
parents, and a small handful of other people who helped me get there. Mostly God. Here’s why: He made it happen.
I’m drifting away from the task at hand, which is how this
summer was life-changing, but there is a point. All my life I’ve heard the
phrase “everything happens for a reason.” When I got that acceptance letter, I
believed it.
So many things had to come together for me to be able to end
up at that place. First, my three-year relationship had to end last year. It
was a devastating blow, but it was really for the best. I had to find a way to
get back on my feet, pull myself together, and force myself to do some soul
searching that I desperately needed. I had to ask myself what I wanted out of
life, not what I was willing to settle for. I had to have a conversation that
would change my life with someone who would also change my life, which would
lead to me taking the LSAT for the first time. I had to fail miserably the
first time, enough to really put my heart into it the second time, and get
tutoring from the bestest tutor ever, Clarissa Constantine. Then there was the
horrid day, in which I took the LSAT the second time, and which if you all read
the blog about it then you know that God was in control or I would never have
even been admitted to take the test. But I failed miserably again. So, I felt
like my dream was gone. It just made me appreciate it that much more when I got
in. And realize I had help.
Not only that, but I recently found out that I didn’t get
the marketing job in Hazard because I had a faulty background check. They saw
some other Jessica Lewis who had a record and wouldn’t hire me. However, if
they hadn’t, they would have hired me, and I would never have applied to law
school. Everything happens for a reason…
After the LSAT scores the first time were horrible, I was hesitant
to apply to any school. I didn’t apply to UK at all. I didn’t want laughed at.
I applied to a school in Charlotte, NC, Knoxville, TN, and I waited to apply to
Chase. Randomly, I got an email from the
admissions officer at Chase, telling me they were still accepting applications.
I emailed her back and explained my situation, that my scores were probably too
low, and I was afraid to apply and have a rejection on my record with them in
case I retook the LSAT. She sent me a chart breaking down the scores and GPA of
the accepted students from the last entering class. She told me to look at the
chart, examine the odds, and make a decision.
The chart, following my GPA and LSAT score, showed that four
students within my range had applied last year, but only one had been
accepted. I folded it around in my mind
for a moment. Looking at it one way, that was a 25% chance. 25% was better than
the 0% I expected. I started telling my formal decision maker at work, Amber
Barger, all about it. She was always the first person I asked these things if
they should happen at work, but her opinion was always summoned at some point.
I liked her train of thought. She made concentrated, calculated, and wise
decisions. I remember turning to her and saying, “I could be THE ONE!” She
agreed to the possibilities and told me I should apply. Then I started working hard core on my
application, and my personal statement.
I was honest, I was open, and every word I spoke, I meant. It was time
to convince them why they should take a chance on the backwards girl from
Leslie County. I’d like to think that my
personal statement was what got me in, but like the old question of “how many
licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop?” well,
“the world may never know.”
What does matter, is that I got in. And I wanted to
celebrate. So we dive back into summer.
My dear cousin Elizabeth mentioned the idea of a cruise to
me while at a family dinner. I had often tumbled the idea of a cruise around in
my head, especially with my beloved roommate who had planned to be my cruise
partner up until her move to Chicago and engagement happened. Again, why not?
We booked a cruise to the Bahamas. Bingo!
Four days and four nights on the water, rocking to the
rhythm of the waves, or the rain I suppose, if the Judds had been there. Point
being, I was going to celebrate law school acceptance, a feat I thought
impossible, in style, by doing something I had never done before. I wanted to
be adventurous for once. Until the second big email I got, subject line: NKU
Chase – KLEO Recipient.
Kentucky
Legal
Education
Opportunity
In the words of my dear banjo-picking friend Obadiah
Golding, “Wait, what now?”
Upon opening the email I found I was being offered a $5000
scholarship to my school (bada-bing,
bada-boom!). Reading further, I saw that to obtain this scholarship I was
to spend 12 days on UK’s campus. In a dorm. Showering with other people.
Ew.
I had never stayed in a dorm. Ever. I missed that whole
experience, and I wasn’t really thrilled about getting it this late in the
game. But…it’s five grand! The quickest and probably easiest $5000 bucks I’ll
ever make. Maybe. Let’s hope not…I am in law school.
I check the dates. It’s sooner than I thought…I would have
to leave work a week early. But something else looked funny about the
dates….oh…yeah…of course. It would
happen right in the middle of my cruise. Well, vice versa I suppose. But still.
Decisions, decisions.
Let’s weigh this option. It costs about 500 bucks to rebook,
OR, I can turn down five grand. What was the problem again? So I rebooked my
cruise, and prepared for what I thought would be the most horrid 12 days of my
life. Boy, was I wrong.
It was the most sleepless 12 days of my life, but certainly
not the worst, not even close. Upon arriving, I discovered there were five
students from each law school in Kentucky, and a returning mentor who had
completed the program a year before. What a diverse group of people I was
seeing, but then again, it is a diversity scholarship. Ah, makes sense.
The first person I saw was Professor Allison Connelly, or as
we learned to love her later, Professor C. I didn’t know what to make of her at
first. I don’t read people well on first impressions usually, so I just watched
during our lunch registration and attempted to fill out the other
students. All of a sudden, a girl comes
running frantically into the building yelling, “Who’s in charge?! Who’s in
charge?!”
Professor C runs to her in a state of a semi-calm panic mode,
and announces that she, in fact, is the leader of this here outfit. She, like
the rest of us, probably thought a murder had just occurred, or a drive by,
maybe even a shanking. It was hard to tell with the level of emotion this
person had expressed. Turns out, she was
just afraid of being towed. Introducing Scarlett Steuart, UK law student. We
all found it funny, and we still redneck her over it. Who wouldn’t?
Now to tell you the occurrences in their entirety would take
12 days to write, and to read. We did a lot, so I will attempt to give you the
‘meat and taters,’ if you will. For 12 days, we were in law school. We had
class from 9 to 5. Somewhere in there we ate; Professor C did feed us good. We
never went hungry. Especially Jeremy Fugate, also known as the human garbage
disposal. I froze to death, so bad I had
to bring a blanket at least once, but a jacket I required daily. At night, we went to eat with our specific
class group, anywhere we wanted. So believe that I ate GOOD for 12 days. So
good that I would attempt to take the 10 flights of stairs to my dorm at least
once a day in attempt to burn a few stray calories. Gee, that was fun. Not.
But what was fun was the dorm life. I really thought I would
hate it, and I’ll be honest, still not crazy about the shower thing, but it
wasn’t as bad as I expected. I didn’t mind it. I found a roommate indirectly.
We had our own room, but just like Carl and Frank, the boy, in Sling Blade, Laken Gilbert, another UK
law student, well we made friends right off the bat. Despite the fact that she
was on one end of the political spectrum, doing diligent work with the
Democratic Party, and I as a proud eastern Kentuckian am on the other end. She moved into my room after a couple days
and we were seldom to be separated after. I always like telling this story.
Laken had me at “No, you will see my meth lab!”
The story behind that is we were in our rooms one morning
sitting on Facebook. I messaged her to see if I could come down and hang with
her. Her response, “No, you will see my meth lab!” Now, while some people
wouldn’t find this funny, I thought it was hilarious. She had my sense of
humor, and we understood each other. We made a good team. And I miss her. *Sad
face*. I miss them all. Some days, I really wish there was a KLEO School of Law.
But, I digress.
Anyway, back to the point.
Those 12 days were tough at times, but they still rocked. We had real
class, real finals, real professors – it was a boot camp. It taught us some of
the most important things we could ever hope to learn about law school, and
gave us a HUGE jump on the “dead weight” as our bewildering, yet always
entertaining, Professor Bucknam would say.
Professor Douglas was intimidating, but really quite humorous in his own
right, especially after the program had ended we had some good conversation.
Those professors made me wish for a time I was going to UK. I loved Professor
Price, she was one of the coolest people professors I had ever met – funny,
nice, and super smart. Her and Professor C made a good team. Also during this time, we did cool things
too, like eating lunch with the Supreme Court of Kentucky, eating lunch with
the Dean of our schools, meeting some past KLEO participants, and other
important figures, not to mention shadowing a judge or attorney for a day. That
day was really fun. I almost saw a fist fight in motion hour. Professor C really took care of us. So now I
will talk about her.
Professor C is one of the most influential people I have
ever met. As I was told, she has basically never charged a dime to any client.
She runs the legal clinic at UK and does all pro-bono. She’s thebomb.com, in other words. She has
ran the KLEO program for 10 years. She has been helping students get their
legal education for many years as a professor. She is an exceptional teacher
and friend. This woman believed in us, before she even met us. She wanted us to
succeed, and she felt in her heart of hearts that we would. She pushed us, she
challenged us, she laughed with us, cried with us, and she loved us. I will
never forget these words, “From this day forward, you’re mine, ALL of you.” And as fellow KLEO member Laura Myers stated, we
all feel like that goes both ways. She is our rock, our safe place, and our
light at the end of the tunnel when the days get too rough. We think about her
and all she has vested in us, and we move forward like there is no other
choice, because there isn’t. We won’t quit, ever,
because of her. She believes in our success, and she will be there to share it
with us in every way. We love you Professor C, and we miss you terribly!
She had a banquet for us at the end of the program where we were awarded certificates as completion of the program. Us Chase people found out that our school was the only one renewing the scholarship so we will end up getting $15,000. That was great news. But most of all we learned valuable skills that we will always hold with us. I met friends that I will keep forever, I crossed boundaries that most people in my hometown wouldn’t dare cross or ever have the chance to, making friends with people from different walks of life, from countries as far as Serbia, or counties as close as Harlan. Amanda Birman and I hit it off too; she understood the words “Cumberland Gap water” and “Don’s Supersaver cakes” and how precious those words were to the folks back home. We threw her a surprise birthday party since she didn’t get to be home with her family. It was a sad day packing up and moving out to come back home. However, it was a memorable experience, one of the best in my life, and one I will hold dear for years and years to come. We will always be a family.
I will list the names of my KLEO peeps here, because I don’t
want to leave anyone out. We lived together, learned together, and loved
together. We are a family. Always.
UK Students:
Chelsea Granville
Laken Gilbert
Carl Williams
Scarlett Steuart
Laura Myers
James “Tee” Pennington (Mentor)
U of L Students:
Sana Abhari
Chris Jenkins
Amanda Birman
Grace Chambers
Mijlia Zgonanine
Aaron Marcus (Mentor)
Chase Students:
Jessica Lewis (Me, duh.)
Lindsay Oakes
Jeremy Fugate
Danny Ackeret
Michele Nguyen
BreAnna Morgan (Mentor)
There is something special to be said about each of these
people. They are all great and I am proud to have been a part of the same
program with them all. I wish the best of luck to them all as well.
Now, let’s get this show on the road.
After returning from my scholarship program, I only had a
few days before the cruise. My mom and dad decided to let me fly to Miami,
where we would be porting from, as opposed to driving, which would have been
really dumb. Kentucky to Miami….like 17 hours…. yeah, no.
We flew out of Lexington, and I thought I was going to be
really nervous. But no. I wasn’t. Not at
all. I just sat there. We took off. We
landed. We waited. We took off again. We
landed again. Boom. Four hours later, we’re in Miami. It really beat 17 hours
let me tell you. And I Ioved it! I absolutely loved it!! I honestly can’t wait
to fly again. So we get to Miami, grab a hotel close to the port, and chill for
a while. That night, we walked across the street to this place called Bayside
where they had an outdoor type mall, lots of food, a stage next to the water
where the dock was, and we had a blast. Dancing on the pier, eating ice cream,
watching the boats roll in and out, it was great. The next morning we left for
the boat.
It. Was. Amazing.
I loved every second of that cruise. I treasured it all, day
by day, every minute. We ate on the top
deck watching the water, we lay by the pool, we watched comedy shows, we danced
into the night, I learned the John Travolta, and we slept very little. On the
beach days, we did crazy but fun things. We took a banana boat ride where we
thought we were going to die a couple times. Flying through the ocean jumping
off the waves because the boat pulling you is doing 90 mph isn’t as much fun as
you’d think. We bought souvenirs. I snorkeled and swam in the ocean, not to
mention seeing the ocean for the first time. I fell in love with it, too.
Sometimes I would go stand on the top deck and just stare out at the water. It
was the most relaxing, calming, crystal clear thinking I had ever done. If
you’ve never been, you have to go, at least once. It was definitely an amazing experience. I
had so much fun, and I survived. We got back to Miami, spent a day on the
beach, shopped around, and flew back the next morning. 
This was my favorite picture from the cruise. It’s my favorite
picture of me I’ve ever taken. If I could go back to that moment daily, it
would be fabulous. There are some moments that you wish could be frozen in
time. This is one of mine. I will always cherish that moment, the way I felt,
the thoughts surrounding my mind, and the view as I stared out into the open
water at sunset. The most gorgeous view I’ve ever seen.
After returning from vacation I spent the next week packing,
moving, and making rounds either seeing or talking in some way to the people most
important in my life and explaining to them the decision I had made – where it
would take me, and how I may be absent from their lives for a while, but asking
them to keep me present in their thoughts. I know I’m not leaving forever, but
I am going to be gone a while. I’ll get to come home and visit, like I did this
weekend, but not that often. Something I have found hard to deal with.
I have just completed my second week as a law student – one
week of orientation, and one true week of classes. The first day was pretty
rough. When I got home, after taking a break from unpacking, it finally hit me;
I was gone, I was alone, and there was no turning back. I cried for about 45
minutes, but then I was OK. I have adjusted well I think, and I really do like
it. I like the learning, and although the Socratic method makes some people’s
heads hurt, I kind of like it. It gives me a rush. I like being prepared for it. The work is a
lot but nothing I can’t handle. I’m pretty ambitious, I’m pretty tough, and I’m
very determined. I’m from the foothills of Eastern Kentucky, I’ve already run
into political disagreements that didn’t turn out well, but I can’t be expected
to stand idly by and listen to people badmouth the coal industry that is
currently helping pay for my education, and so much more in my hometown.
Everyone has the right to their opinion but I can’t be expected to cave in when
someone who knows nothing of the topic and has never lived here or seen it
first hand is challenging the livelihood of my friends and family to me. So,
know that you are being well defended in the north my friends. I indeed have
your back.
To end this little chronicle, I conclude that this has been
a perfect, life-changing summer. I am living out my dream, finally, after all
these years. I was able to do things that I thought I would never do, and I
have finally made it to where I need to be. It’s been a slow struggle. Next
month, I will turn 25, not where I had imagined myself up to this point, but I
am so thankful to be here. I am so grateful to have walked the road I did, and
ended up in this very spot of my journey. Again, everything happens for a
reason. I don’t look like every other law student. I certainly don’t act like
every other law student. Nonetheless, that’s what I am.
I miss my job at the bank. I miss my co-workers and friends,
my family, and my routine. But this is something I had to do. I had to go after
that dream, I know now I would never have been satisfied had I not. The very
moment I got that acceptance email, I realized how bad I had wanted it. The
moment I set foot in Professor C’s Criminal Law class at KLEO, I knew how much
I was going to love it. I love a good challenge, and it looks like I’ve finally
met my match.
On another note, let me just say from the bottom of my heart
to all who reads, thank you. I have been absolutely overwhelmed by the amount
of support I have received from my community, my family, and my friends. It has
meant so much to have you all backing me, encouraging me, and putting the faith
in me that you have. Everyday I receive countless Facebook messages, comments
and likes, text messages, and indirect comments delivered to me by others like
my parents from people who send me their well wishes and love. Never in my life
did I expect to be a part of so many lives, and I am humbled by the respect,
love, and faith that you have bestowed upon me. I promise that I will not let
you down, in any right. I will make Leslie County proud.
This may be my last blog for a while as I am embarking on
one long, hard, but rewarding journey. Please do continue to keep in contact. I
love hearing from everyone and it makes the days when I feel so far from home a
little easier.
This morning I was so excited to be back in church. Keith
always seems to know when I need to hear something, and this morning part of
his sermon was about ‘givin’ it all you got.’ Church and the family I have
there has really helped this to all come together for me, too, and it’s hard
not being able to make it every Sunday anymore. Faith is something that we all
should have, but some of us do not nearly have enough. Between my support system throughout this
county and the church, I have so much more faith than I used to. God really can
do so much; I am living proof.
Now off to my other favorite part of coming home on a Sunday
– Lewis family dinner.
God bless and love to all,
Jess
