"You can't judge a book by its cover." As a child, this was one cliche to which I
was particularly devoted. In addition to the customary difficulties of adjusting to
adolescence and a new school environment, I entered middle school with an unusual
liability: I suffered from facial tics, the most persistent of which was a frequent,
involuntary eye twitch. Only a few weeks into the seventh grade, I acquired the
nickname "Blinky" and, at an age when insecurities already run rampant, my identity
was permanently defined by the feature which I hated most in myself. Even back then I
realized that the teasing was always affectionate, and I made friends quickly;
nevertheless, I spent years with a nagging feeling that 1 was somehow aberrant.
Gradually, however, my tics diminished in both frequency and intensity, and by the
time I entered college they had largely disappeared.
I wanted to discuss this condition because I believe that, as an ever-present factor during
many of these formative years, the experience played a major role in shaping the adult I have
become. Although ten years ago I would never have foreseen that my tics could be a powerful
vehicle for personal growth, I believe that the experience has helped me to develop a heightened
sensitivity for those who have struggled to fit in socially. It was this factor, for example, which
led me to become a Resident Assistant as an undergraduate at Stanford for two years, and which
has prompted my involvement with various community service projects, giving me the
opportunity to interact with troubled and disadvantaged youth.
Most importantly, as a person who often felt different while growing up—and who
desperately wanted the other kids to judge the content of the book, rather than the quality of the
cover—I have always made an effort in both my personal and in my professional life to scratch
well beneath the surface, to determine whether the substance actually matches the form. My
decision to attend law school also reflects this tendency. Although I have long had an interest in
the law as an academic discipline, my work experience since graduating has given me the
opportunity to confirm that my academic interests would extend to the real-world application of
legal principles. To this end, I purposefully chose jobs that provided two very distinct
perspectives on the practice of law: a