The following essay is a rejected personal statement for my law school applications. Please enjoy.

So, XYZ University Law School, you want to know why I want to go to law school. Well, I am a full-time college student working two jobs and trying to plan life after graduation. I took the time to meet with professors to get letters of recommendation, study for the LSAT, take the LSAT, fill out your application, and then paid $400 to take the LSAT twice, $37 in total to park at the testing centers, $45 to order my CAS report, and $XX to submit this damn application to you. So, to answer that initial inquiry, this personal statement is focused on the moment where I really sat in my car on the third floor of the Sheraton Dallas Hotel parking garage and thought, “Is any of this worth it?” 

January 13th, 2020 was supposed to be my first day of classes for my final semester at Texas Christian University, but I had gotten excused so I could drive 40 miles from Fort Worth to Dallas to take the LSAT. Now, I am all for admitting areas where I need improvement, and driving is one of them. This was the third time I would be driving on the highway alone, and I was nervous. I’ve seen the statistics on car accidents, it’s a reasonable fear. So it’s 10:30 AM, the adrenaline is pumping, I’m leaving my dorm with my iced coffee clutched in one hand and my quart-sized plastic bag with everything in it for the exam in the other, and I’m off.

Making it to Dallas was a breeze, but chaos was quick to follow. The Sheraton Dallas Hotel straddles Olive Street, with the valet being on the right and the parking garage on the left. Now, as I was making my way down Olive Street, I decided that I would figure out where the garage was, circle around the hotel, and proceed with my newfound knowledge of where to go. And then I made the nearly fatal mistake: I turned off my GPS and took the first right to make the loop around.

The thing about Dallas is some of the streets are cobblestone, and this new road I turned onto was just the same as Olive Street, which I had turned from. It was an unmarked turn–no signs anywhere–before an incoming merge lane ahead, so I logically deduced that it was a road that would take me around the hotel as I had hoped. I was partially correct that it would take me where I wanted to go, but I was wrong in believing that it was a street. No, it was for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit. That’s right, I was driving on rather inconspicuous train tracks.

How do you know if you are driving down a one-way in the wrong direction? Usually, it’s the cars that are parked on the side of the street or another car coming right at you. How do you know if you’re actually driving on the tracks of a passenger train that reaches up to 65 miles per hour in speed? You pass through an intersection where all six lanes of traffic are stopped and you don’t have a traffic light. It’s in that moment that you realize something’s wrong. And upon assessing your surroundings, you focus in on the two metal strips in the ground. It is then that you realize you are really, really in the wrong place. At the second intersection, I whipped my car onto the perpendicular road so fast, I think I ended up with whiplash. Nearly hitting four pedestrians and hitting a solid 3-point turn out of a truck bay, I was back on the road with newfound adrenaline.

I made it into the parking garage, pulled up onto the third floor, and really contemplated my life as I realized I could have died if, you know, I got on right ahead of the train pulling up. Here I was, about to take an incredibly important test that for some reason has relevance to my future, and all I can think about is how my obituary would have said “Died driving on the DART tracks while trying to take the LSAT.” What a way to go.

Later that night, after hanging out in Dallas with family and friends, I took two wrong turns and wound up back in Downtown Dallas, where I was stopped not once, but twice by the DART. Facing my nearly fatal fate right there.

All that being said, I almost died to fulfill all the application requirements for your law school, and because of that, I deserve to be admitted. And with a decent financial aid package at that to compensate for the emotional trauma. Thank you and see you at the beginning of the Fall semester.