Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Law Students Blogs -> Legally Blonde Ambition

Law Students

: Legally Blonde Ambition

One Time I Failed. At Life.

By "Daisy Duke"

Shocking but true. Last night I took my last final ever (And yes Katie, I think we might secretly be related, but only if you have as many crazies in your family as I do. And oh man, do I.) and I'd say it was time to break open the bubbly and toast me being done with law school but I have to finish the last little bit of a project so technically I'm not quite done. But with graduation looming the thought of "Gee, I hope I didn't fail anything" keeps running through my mind (it would make for an awkward family weekend to say the least) followed by the memory of the one time I did fail. Hardcore. So for all you over achievers out there (maybe some of you are considering law school and are wondering about your lack-of-perfection affecting your chances of getting in and being successful?) listen up.

I, Daisy Duke, failed the Evolution of Human Health and Disease my senior year of college, fall semester.

And I still got a 3.9 gpa that semester.

Going into senior year I somehow needed one final pesky science credit to finish. EEOB-Human Health & Disease was an intro-level, non-major course within the evolutionary biology department and I thought it sounded nice. It was at 8:30 am on the corner of campus closest to my house, making for a quick jaunt over every morning. I convinced one of my best friends to take it with me (and he might never forgive me) and off we went. To hell. In a hand basket.

Our professor was a lumberjack type who wore flannel every day even in New Orleans (read: hot, humid, and just plain hot) and hiking boots just in case a venomous snake jumped out and bit him. Which, I realize in New Orleans might be more likely than, say, Manhattan, but it was a nice college campus with landscaping and a significant lack of venomous snakes. Rabid squirrels, yes. Cockroaches, yes. But snakes? Not so much. But I digress. He was the worst. professor. ever. Mostly because we'd go to class and he would lecture and we would watch videos. It was interesting stuff, all about the black death, the various flu pandemics throughout world history, how sanitation & vaccinations helped tremendously. Fairly interesting and not horribly complicated for a non-major to understand.

And then the first exam came. We had three exams during the semester and a final. So I studied for the first exam, and went and took it. Only to be blindsided by questions like this:

On page 263 of your third textbook, Professor Smith notes that the bubonic plague was eerily similar to which of the following:
A: some other plague
B: some other plague
C: some other plague

We had three thick textbooks and the questions were basically "fill in the blank part of this obscure sentence within the reading". Then there were random Boston Red Sox questions (that didn't count but that I always got right) that one time, I shit you not, made a girl cry in the middle of the exam because she didn't know the answer and please, woman, they are a free extra credit question.

So after the first exam which I failed abysmally I switched from taking the course for a grade to pass-fail. I wasn't feeling to good about the course but I needed that science credit.

Long story short, the rest of the semester went similarly. I didn't miss a single class (At 8:30 am! My senior year!) I took notes and I did the reading. But with an average of 600 pages per exam, the exam format and myself did not get along. So after the final exam I emailed the professor explaining my predicament, that I wasn't a major, that I needed the class to graduate and that I was waiting to hear back from law schools.

His email back informed I was an idiot, law school was hard, and I was sure to flunk out my first semester. Then he failed me. In a pass-fail course. (Hence the 3.9 gpa, as pass-fail courses don't factor in to your gpa)

I saw him the morning of graduation. I had already had a bottle of champagne (What? So had everyone else) and he was some sort of an usher. He was speaking with the heads of various science departments and I don't know what got into me, but in all of my graduation regalia I marched up to him and in front of all of the other professors announced:

"Hi. I'm Daisy Duke. You might remember me, I was in your EEOB course last semester. You failed me and told me, via email, that I wasn't going to hack it in law school. I just wanted to let you know that I'm graduating today, in spite of your horrendous class, and I'm going to a ranked law school on an academic scholarship. Your class was the worst course I have ever taken in all four years at Small Southern Private School and your lack of empathy for your students was astounding. Furthermore, I'm having the course investigated by the Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences who is very intrigued by the fact that the grades were all "fails" or a "D's" for the non-majors, and all the EEOB majors were given A's."

The look on his face was well worth it.

And the Dean really did investigate him and I heard he got in quite a bit of trouble.

Victory was mine. Except for that failure part.

And that is the story of how I was the only senior in Psychology 101 the spring semester of 2005 at Small Southern Private School. Which I passed.

Full post as published by Legally Blonde Ambition on May 08, 2008 (boomark / email).