Robert's First Day of Law School (FINALLY!)

WOW! The day is finally here!!!! Today classes officially start for Robert at the University of San Diego Law School.  He and I are so happy and excited for this to begin! Choosing this school was a difficult decision for both of us, and I couldn't be happier with our decision. 

When Robert first told me he wanted to go back to school to finish his undergrad, and then go onto law school, I was shocked. Of course I was thrilled, because I knew he was unhappy and unfulfilled doing restaurant management, but I was scared too.  He gave up a steady, well-paying job to serve tables and go back school at the age of 27. He was scared to be the "old guy" in school, and not sure if he would be successful after being out of college for almost 5 years. Low and behold, he did awesome at USF completing his Bachelor's Degree.  He actually enjoyed college for the first time, and got straight A's. He felt that since he was older, he appreciated it more, and actually took it seriously. He finally got his final grades a couple weeks ago, and he is thrilled to say that he graduated with a 3.9 GPA, which means he GRADUATED WITH HONORS! So proud of my little smarty pants.

Even though as soon as he began his undergrad completion, there was still the daunting task of beginning the steps to get into law school.  I knew he could do anything he put his mind to, but I honestly had no idea how to go about beginning this process. Robert was so motivated in finding out as much information as he could about how to go about studying for the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), which dates he could take it, and when everything needed to be completed by so that he could start law school as soon as his undergrad was done.  Even though it was a huge financial burden, he decided that the best plan to get the highest score possible on the LSAT was to take a study course for it.  This course runs around $1500 and the one he took was 3 nights a week in Davis. He had heard great success stories from using a study course to improve your score, so he knew this would be a great investment of money.  Not only was it a lot of money (and gas money) to take this course, but he had to devote almost 2 entire months just to studying (while doing his undergrad coursework as well). He barely worked for these two months, which at first I thought was a little extreme. How hard could this test be? Robert explained to me that this test actually has nothing to do with learning the law, but it is a test that teaches you to "think like a lawyer." It tests a studen'ts ability to be able to think about things in a way they haven't ever done before. Thankfully Robert scored a 150 on his first try, before even beginning the study course. This is a pretty decent score for some people on their final try. Now that Robert had a starting point of reference, and knew that he could do it, he put all his efforts into improving his score. 

There are portions of the test on reading comprehension, games, and so on. He did multiple practice tests at the library, and filled up notebooks with all his practice activities. Well...when the time came to take the test, he felt he did well, but only time would tell.  We patiently waited, trying to keep our minds off of it...and then the day finally came. He got a 164! The test is out of 180, which makes 164 sound not so great, right? WRONG! A 164 is the 90th percentile! I was sooo thrilled for him. He did it! With that score, his good grades, and his ethnic background, he knew right then that law school was definitely in his future. Robert soon starting getting fee waivers from schools, and asking for fee waivers from other schools that didn't send them, so he could apply to as many schools as possible for free.

Robert and I never seriously imagined leaving Sacramento, but we wanted to keep our options open.  McGeorge in Sacramento is a great school to stay in the area, and it is a private school, which Robert really liked. We went to a law day there, and Robert liked the campus and the school all around.  He really wanted to go to UC Davis because they are ranked really high, and it is a great law school. Robert got his first acceptance letter to University of Denver, then followed letters of acceptance to University of San Diego, McGeorge, Santa Clara, and the list went on and on. This was so exciting, but also difficult because he was still waiting to hear from UC Davis. Another big deciding factor of where Robert wanted to attend was how much scholarship money he would be offered from each school. The scholarship offers come after the acceptance letters usually, so we still had to wait wait wait. Soon pretty sizable scholarship offers came in from Denver, Santa Clara, McGeorge, and finally (my favorite) USD!!!

Robert was actually at work when he got the scholarship offer from USD, but I was so excited that I opened it anyway. They offered him $23,000 a year! That is over half of the tuition paid for!  I was screaming and jumping up and down. I immediately called Robert at work, and he was beyond thrilled as well.  When he got home we celebrated with some bubbly, and talked about the possibilities.  We owned a house in Fair Oaks, which was the number one thing holdind us back from moving.  In the poor housing market, we knew we would not be able to rent the house for how much our mortgage was, and we couldn't afford to be paying money every month to make up the difference. We finally made the difficult decision to sell our house, and lose all the money we had put into it. Even though I was happy with the scholarship offer Robert received from USD, he wanted to see if he could get more money. We were planning a trip to visit the campus in January 2012, to see if he liked the campus, and could see himself going there. He loved it right away! The fact that is a private, Catholic college elated him, and not to mention that it is in the beautiful and sunny San Diego! After the campus tour, Robert wanted to visit the financial aid office to see if the status of his scholarship had changed. When he got there he met with a counselor, and he said "oh, you're Robert Rodriguez? We have a revised scholarship offer for you." These were the words we were waiting to here. We both fully expected them to not actually give him more money. He had received bigger offers from other schools, so he had faith that USD would want to compete with those offers, to entice him to attend their school.  The new offer was for $31,000 per year!! What a blessing! Just for asking, the scholarship would now cover 3/4 of his total tuition! This was the sign from God that we knew we could not ignore. 

Pics from our first visit to the USD Campus January 2012

We could not let owning a home hold us back from this great opportunity at such a great school.  Of course after we come home and I want to shout to the world that we're moving, Robert gets accepted to UC Davis Law. Since they aren't a private school they do not give loads of scholarship money like the other schools. Even though Davis is ranked higher than USD, he didn't want to attend it paying  the full price tag of $120,000 over 3 years, plus living expenses.  So there it was, the decision was made. Easier said than done....now we had to figure out the steps to selling our house, and getting rid of all of our stuff.  We went from living in a 3 bed 2 bath house with a huge yard and garage with 3 dogs to a 2 bedroom 1 bath 800 sq. foot apartment in Pacific Beach. We actually lucked out with our place and could afford a 2 bedroom place. We thought we would be forced to have a 1 bedroom, and would really be spatially challenged with where to keep all of our belongings. After selling and giving away as much as possible, we packed up the U-Haul July 5th. I told Robert "wow...it's scary to think that all of the stuff we own is in the back of that truck.."

Our U-Haul all loaded up (thanks Stephen for helping pack it so well)

It was a really difficult last few weeks in Sacramento. We were so excited to move, and finally start this new chapter in our lives, yet it was really sad as well. I've lived my whole life in Fair Oaks, our parents and friends are there, and almost all of our siblings too.  Was this all going to be worth it? Were we gambling everything we had on this dream, and would it work out? Well...only time will tell, but I know it is the right path for us. All of these doors wouldn't have been opened for us if it wasn't meant to be. Robert's brother was amazing in helping us move. He actually lives in Los Angeles, and flew up late Thursday July 5th, then drove one of our cars down for us. I drove the SUV and Rob drove the U-Haul.  It was quite the long drive, but actually kind of fun to caravan down there together. Thank you for your help Richard!!! You're amazing :) And thank you to everyone who has supported us thus far. You all know Robert is so smart and will succeed, but thanks for the confirmation that you all have faith this plan will work out for us. LOVE YOU ALL! And most of all Congratulations to Robert for all of your hard work!

This is the view I had for 500 miles...but look at the sign! That's our exit to our apartment.

 (UPPER PIC) This is what Chloe did the whole drive....besides annoying me by whining the whole time and crying to sit on my lap.

 These are some pics of the 6 weeks we spent in Pacific Beach before law school began. Relaxing, napping, going to the beach, etc. Good bye lazy days, hello studying!

Robert even grew a beard before law school! It turned out cuter than I thought haha. Love him!