My Life After the LSATS

Everyone I know seems to be making promises to themselves lately in hopes of becoming a better version of themselves. My artist friends are making promises to draw everyday, my writer friend is promising to write every day... so it truly leaves me wondering, once my LSATS are over (in exactly a week from today!!!) what will I be doing every day? I mean obviously, I wont be practicing law every day; thats what the three years of hell they call law school will be for. No, for my year off, I want to do something great for myself. So here's a small list I've compiled.

1. Get serious about my diet- I have lost 15 pounds since I graduated college, and I'm extremely proud of that. However, I have roughly another 5 pounds I'd like to shed, and they're proving to be the most difficult. I know I can do it, but it means skipping that dessert at night, doing the full hour of cardio at the gym, and no more taking that extra helping, no matter how small it may be, because the food is just so good.

2. Knit a blanket- I taught myself how to knit last year, and although I still don't really know if I'm doing a knit stitch or a purl stitch, or what the difference is, or how to combine those two stitches to get any other pattern than the one I always knit, I honestly love the process. I know it may look a little dorky, I will be that 22 year old knitting on the subway, but it's fun to do something with your hands while you're just sitting there. The better part is to actually know you're creating something. I know an entire blanket may be a bit adventurous, but I do have an entire year!

3. Make jam- I don't really have an explanation for this. I honestly don't even eat jam that often, so I don't know where this sick need to make jam has come from, but it has. I want to make jam and I want to give my jam to everyone! All sorts of jam! I was thinking that I could ask all my friends if they wanted jam, and all they would have to do is give me an empty jam bottle and they'd get it back filled with jam! For those of you living far away, you could just ship me an empty bottle with enough money for delivery and I'll send it back to you!

4. De-clutter my life- I am a self-professed materialistic girl. It's true. I really like things. People may see this as a bad thing, but I don't. In the end, I know that what I buy is just stuff, and they wont necessarily make me happy for long. Unfortunately, that doesn't change the fact that I really do get joy out of shopping for things and having new things. As a girl, these "things" usually mean clothes and bags. I honestly can't even begin to express the amount of joy I have carrying around my new patent leather coach bag, dressed in all my new work clothes has brought me. However, years of this habit, alongside parents who have always been kind enough to feed this need, has left me with a lot of stuff. It's gotten to a point where I have taken over three rooms in my house, and that, I'm starting to realize, is a little absurd. So I will clean, donate and knowing me, probably buy new things to fill the void!

5. Read- My lack of a life and the lack of things to do on Long Island has led to many trips to Borders with my friend. In fact, we started calling the combination of blockbuster, borders and starbucks, "the trinity" as we usually wind up hitting all three on any given night. Anyways, as we'd perusal the books at borders, I'd constantly pick up books pretending like I had the time or motivation to read them. I'd come home, add them to the growing pile of books by my bedside table, and there they'd stay. I started a few, even got halfway through one (Lev Grossman's The Magicians- read it! It's really good so far!) but have yet to finish a single one. So, I want to attack that pile full force and read more classics. There are a ton of books that I feel like I should have read already, and I haven't, or some that were assigned to me in high school that I never really gave the attention deserved because it was an "assignment."

6. Apply to law school- I have spent a year studying for this god-forsaken test, so while most people wouldn't be excited at the prospect of mulling over applications, I truly am. I love looking at glossy brochures, thinking about the life I could live at any one of the hundreds of institutions. I dream about my life in another city and these feelings of longing and excitement fill me. Part of me can't wait for getting on with that part of my life, but in the end I know that I still have a lot to accomplish in this year first!