"It Could Be Worse" When It Seems As Bad As It Can Get

I am by nature a person who tries to see the sunny side of things. Though sometimes a process can be so thoroughly unpleasant that I can only get through it by constantly reminding myself that it could be worse. Taking the bar in California, however, makes applying even my compromise rule more difficult.

The reason for the difficulty is this: no matter who does the measuring California has by universal consensus the hardest bar exam in the United States. So while other law graduates can say, "It could be worse, at least I'm not taking the bar in California." bar takers in California cannot positively contrast their bar experience with any other American taking the bar exam. Our experience is, empirically, as bad as it gets.

Despite what we aspiring California esquires may come to think over the next few months, however, there is a world outside of the context of the bar exam. While we may be having the worst possible bar experience, we are not having the worst possible human experience. It could be much, much, worse.

This blog will be a series of posts in which I remind myself that there are people who have gone through things that make my bar experience a joke and have still held their heads high. I also hope it will give my comrades in the struggle against the bar exam in California and in other states some perspective, a bit of gallows humor, and something else to think about other than memorizing the three (four?) elements of respondeat superior.