“If” (For Law Students)

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If you can keep your head when all about you,Are losing theirs in every interview,If you can trust yourself when recruiters doubt you,But make allowance for their doubting, too;If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,And though keen to please, refrain from lies;Or being rated, don’t worship rating,You’ll sound your best, yet be truly wise.

If you can dream of jobs, and not make jobs your master;If you can think like a lawyer, and not make that your aim;If you can meet the firm of Triumph and DisasterAnd treat those two partners just the same;If you can bear the words you’ve spokenTwisted by interviewers to make a trap for fools,Or watch the resume you crafted broken To fit someone else’s rules;

If you can make a heap of all your offers,And once you’ve slept on it, risk one with the tossOf a coin, and start again at the beginning,and if it’s a mistake, write off your loss;If you can call a headhunter, when your heart and sinew Have served their turn and are nearly gone,And so hold on when there is nothing in youUntil the time comes to say at last — “So long!”

If you can work for clients and keep your virtue,Or lunch with partners — nor lose the common touch,If inflated egos cannot hurt you,If all assignments count with you, but none too much;If you can fill the unforgiving minuteWith 60 seconds worth of billing, yet have some fun,And have a life and love all who share in it,You’ll have fought the odds and won!

— Mark Byers (With apologies to Rudyard Kipling!)

The Office of Student Life Counseling provides counseling services for all law students. The office is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Call 495-2967 for an appointment.

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