Pros and Cons of failing the Bar exam

Here are some pros and cons of failing the bar exam:

• Pros
• You were there to set the curve for your freinds(,enemies, frenemies, and everyone else for that matter). 
• When your freinds pass, you can tell them "[they] couldn't have done it without you." I just found out one of my compatriots is making 6 figures as an insurance defense attorney.  Maybe I can garnish his wages because now he owes me for failing the bar.
• Failure breeds emotional growth (but only if you allow it to). 
• Sigmund Freud once said [That which does not kill you will only make you stronger].  This quote is obviously limited in the sense that there are some things people never recover from (like some car accidents).  Thankfully, we can recover from the bar exam, pass or fail.  The bar exam is not the end all be all.  The bar exam isn't "2012."  Seriously, its not the end of the world, and if you feel that way then make a new world. (What I mean by this is to change your perception of your life including your priorities).
• The next time you take the bar exam, you will have experience under your belt.
• I was on the phone breaking the news of my double bar flunkage to my freinds and peers.  I tend to be pretty sarcastic and optimistic in the same breath so this is one of the things I came up with this weekend.  Personally, I'll take the passing and the license over the experience all day any day.  But what is to be must be.
• It becomes easier to find your way to the Bar exam center (In my case the Tampa Convention Center).
• The first time I took the bar exam, I took a shuttle to the exam both days.  I had to find people in the same hotel to find my way back because I was afraid of getting lost.  The second time was a little better.  This time I will train.  I have been jogging and doing sprints.  The next time I go, I will be able to set a world record for my time to the convention center from the hotel.
• There is nowhere to go but up from here.
• I understand it could be worse, but I think I've hit rock bottom.  I've been through tougher situations, but I've never dealt with so much difficulty all at once.  Assuming this is rock bottom, I now have a firm foundation from which to build my way back up.
• Cons
• Debt, Debt, Debt,Debt, Debt! 
• My LSAT was low. I went to a Tier 4 school (or T 14 as some say) where tuition and cost of living was about $37,600 per year.  I am in 6 figures worth of debt nearly two times over, 95% of which is school and bar related.  I assumed I would pass on the first try and get a job and immediately begin paying off my debts.  I was wrong on both counts.  I had no credit card debt when I graduated law school.  But I do now because of unrelated psuedo emergencies.  What's there to worry about?
• I feel like I have lost so much of my time.  ("Tell them what they've won Bob!")
• "Time and tide waits for no man." -Geoffrey Chaucer- I went through a summer conditional program, 2 1/2 years of law school, and a year of bar exam study (give or take).  4 years later, the most profound thing I have to show is my debt.  I enjoyed learning the law, though law school was far from easy for me.  I spent hours upon hours heaped and hunched over a desk in a freezing cold library eating fast food and suffering indigestion.  I lost sleep and I made what i thought were sacrifices.  I don't beleive the payoff has been worth it.  I can't help but feel I could have done something better with myself and my time.  Was it worse for me to be born, or for me to go to lawschool?  I'm not sure. 
• I put off seeking a girlfriend, I have put off my freinds, family and Holidays.  I traded them for libraries, bookstores, coffe shops, multiple choice problems, essays, outlines, Bar/bri lectures and PMBR CD's.  My non law school and licensed J.D. friends have jobs, money, relationships, homes, and marriages.  I am relegated to a room in my grandparents' home (whom I love to death by the way), where I rely on them to help me out with my bills.  How do I keep from feeling like a mooch? 
• Oddly enough, I was out with friends this weekend.  One who just passed the bar but is awaiting a hearing with the board of bar examiners.  The other failed the bar exam, but he is getting a tax LLM at a top 5 tax program.  They too were questioning their decisions to go to law school.
• The Job market for lawyers is already bad, but much more so for nonlicensed J.D.s
• I am having similar experiences as Waitress, J.D. I thought it would be cake to find a legal clerk, or paralegal position until I passed the bar exam.  My experiences have proven otherwise.  As of now, I "clerk" for this lawyer down the street from my house.  I picked his firm because I knew a recent lawyer had dissociated from the firm and they needed some help.  My cousin and sister both worked there while in consecutive stings while they were in highschool.  I figured I could do a good job and maybe learn a thing or two.
• Alas, "[n]othing good comes easy." I should have known when I went in and he hired me 5 minutes later, something was up.  I was hired as an independent contractor so this guy wouldn't have to pay me benefits and it would lessen his taxes.  I am getting paid $11/hr and am responsible for my taxes.  "It's not so bad" I thought to myself.  I knew he had a reputation for being "economical" and I actually anticipated he would pay around $7.  I failed to realize minimum wage has risen to $7.25 since the days I was making $5.25 as a teenager; he is paying me $1 dollar more than he was paying my cousin who hadn't even graduated high school and I have a J.D. (Yayy!); while I began by working 40 + hours per week, he swiftly cut my hours to about 7-20 while he went on vacation for three weeks.  Now, I am supposed to call every day to see if they need me.  I haven't "worked" for a week because they haven't needed.
• He is a businessman, and this is business so I don't fault him.  If I had the chance, I would be be out of there so quick because "this is business."  I'm not too proud to call in or anything like that. I keep doing it, but frankly I'm tired of the job.  Save, learning some Personal Injury jargon, I haven't learned jack.  All I do is file, copy, fax, scan, enter data, and answer phones.  I am putting in earnest effort, but I know I don't want to start a career there, they are not looking for new lawyers, and I don't really feel welcome.
• The endless barrage and bombardment of Cliches
• This may be the worst part of failing the bar.  Everytime I talk to my family and friends they attempt to be both sympathetic and/or empathetic to my "plight."  But, they don't really know what to say or exactly how you feel, even though most of them have been through worse scenarios.  Yet they feel a need to say something.  I would rather they not.  Often times, silence is golden.  It's nice to sit and reflect or just chill at times.  Still, under the guise of obligation they say things like "[i] know how you feel," and "It's going to be okay. You just pick yourself up and keep going." Others have said "[y]ou'll be better off for this," "[t]here is a reason for everything," "Who knows? Maybe you'll meet your future wife the next time you take the test." Here is one my personal favorites: "What do you call the guy to flunk the bar exam X amount of times who finally passes? Esquire." 
• I am guilty of the same kind of things.  These people all mean well.  I would probably be saying the same kinds of things.  In fact, my writing is "chock full" of cliches." My mom believes in me.  She said "I just know you'll pass this time. I feel it in my spirit." The problem is she had that same feeling the last time.  I don't feel any better for having heard any of these cliches.  I don't fault any of them for it, but it is pretty tiresome to hear the same kind of stuff over and over, where there is no rational basis for it. (See that! I'm "thinking like a lawyer.") Yet again, I'm laughing inside.
• Having to see the same faces over and over again
• For every administration, my school gives free lunches and the same ladies from the job placement office are there everytime without fail.  Last time I had to see the people who started Law School with me, who knew I graduated a semester early and was taking the exam a second time. Now, I will have to see the students who graduated the year after I did who will know I am taking the exam a third time. What a priceless feeling. I'm laughing inside yet again.  Oh well.  As they say in the official tongue of my ancestors "C'est la vie, n'est ce pas?"
• That is one of the the great things about the Florida Bar Exam. Instead of having multiple locations for the exam like most considerate states do, they are one of the only states to force takers to go the same exact place every year.  For a repeater, this can be agonizing.  "Thank you so much Florida Board of Bar examiners. I'm glad you guys care so much about me."