Where I Belawng: In the Meantime
By Amanda Gernentz Hanson • December 01, 2015 •Writers in Residence, Law School, Pre-Law
How fast has this year gone, guys? About a year ago, I got an email saying that I had been chosen as a Writer-in-Residence for the 2015 calendar year for this lovely website, Ms. JD. I couldn’t have been more excited. I’d been thinking about transitioning into something with more of a legal focus for a while, and I was excited to get started. I love the law, and as you all know, I’ve been preparing for the LSAT and researching law schools. A lot can happen in a year. In the last year, I got a job as an…
Where I Belawng: Changing Plans
By Amanda Gernentz Hanson • November 04, 2015 •Writers in Residence
“Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn’t stop for anybody.” —Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower This post isn’t going to digress into anything involving my friends leaving me, don’t worry. I love this quote and I feel like the other two sentences put things into perspective. Things change. Life doesn’t stop for anybody. If you’ll remember, last month I wrote my post from the tail end of a five week adventure in Pune, India with my full time job as an instructional designer. So, in that sense, I was the friend that left temporarily. I won’t dive…
Where I Belawng: The Lucky Ones
By Amanda Gernentz Hanson • October 04, 2015 •Writers in Residence
Greetings from India! Holy cow, has it already been a month since I wrote that last post about dual degrees? I can’t say that I have an answer to the question I posed, mostly because I’ve been too busy trying to keep my head above water with work. But this experience has made me realize something about the law in the United States. We are so lucky. This could apply to a lot of things, but I’m going to specifically talk about being a career woman in this post. I always took for granted the fact that I was expected…
Where I Belawng: Duality
By Amanda Gernentz Hanson • September 03, 2015 •Writers in Residence, Law School, Pre-Law, Other Law School Issues
Now that we’ve had almost a month of married bliss, I’m back to thinking about what I’m doing next in my life. Does that mean law school? I’m hoping so! Life has been taking me on some twists and turns lately. I was recently given an amazing opportunity at my current job. In fact, as I’m writing this, I’m sitting at the airport, because I’m headed to India for 5 weeks for work. Can you believe that? So here’s the backstory, which will bring me around to my topic this month—dual degrees. I come from a science background, as I’ve…
Where I Belawng: Legally Yours
By Amanda Gernentz Hanson • August 04, 2015 •Writers in Residence, Issues, Sexism, Sexual Harassment, and Other Forms of Discrimination, Other Issues
I realized something last week as I stood in the Public Health building in our county. It was the middle of the day on a Tuesday. H and I had taken a joint lunch break to apply for our marriage license. Until that day, I’d never made a legal oath before. I’d never held up my hand and sworn anything. It was a first for me. And it made me think about marriage as a whole. H and I decided to get married not long after we started dating. We talked about it. We decided we wanted to wait until…
Where I Belawng: LSAT Study Tips (from a Full-Time Working Dog Owner)
By Amanda Gernentz Hanson • July 03, 2015 •Writers in Residence, Law School, Pre-Law
Something that I’ve been doing lately is studying for the LSAT, when I can. Between planning a wedding and fulfilling the obligations of my full time job, it’s been difficult to find the time. In trying (and sadly, failing much of the time) to find the time and space to study for such a challenging and unique exam, I’ve come up with some tips that may help other pre-law studiers out there. Sit at a desk or table. After being at work all day—and especially on the weekends—the last thing I want to do is sit at another desk. I…
Where I Belawng: Last Academic Standardized Test (LSAT Prep)
By Amanda Gernentz Hanson • June 04, 2015 •Writers in Residence, Law School, Pre-Law
I can hardly believe it’s been almost a month since I completed my Master’s degree. Almost a month! Would you look at that? But now, on to the real question… What do I do next? And I keep coming back to the same realization—it’s time to start thinking about the LSAT. One day last week, I started looking through the depths of the interwebs to find study plans that might work for someone who is going to be working full time. I found a variety of different plans that ranged in length-of-time from six months of studying to four weeks…
Where I Belawng: You Better Work (I Did)
By Amanda Gernentz Hanson • May 05, 2015 •Writers in Residence
As I sit here and write this, I am four days away from walking across a stage with my Master’s degree. Heckuva introduction to a post, right? A master’s degree may not seem like much to lawyers who already have their JD, but to me, it does mean something. It’s big. To me, it means that I won. Now, why would I put it like that, do you ask? When I graduated from college, I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I was going to get my PhD and then I was going to…
Where I Belawng: What’s Your Number?
By Amanda Gernentz Hanson • April 03, 2015 •Writers in Residence, Law School, Pre-Law
In the process of planning out law school applications, I now have gotten some fantastic responses to my posts from several people. Thank you so much for responding! I’ve discussed the different law specialties that I’ve looked at and wondered whether or not I’ll even get into law school. It hasn’t exactly been light stuff, but I’ve been so thrilled by the responses. Thank you, Ms. JD community! And this time, I’m reaching out again. How many law schools does the typical person apply to? My plan is to start studying for the LSAT sometime after I graduate with my…