音频下载[点击右键另存为][00:00.00]The Day I Flunked out of Law School 我被法学院开除的日子
[00:06.07]The dean of the University of Colorado School of Law decided
[00:11.32]that I couldn’t return to classes next fall
[00:13.85]because my grades were too low.
[00:16.02]He said I would never make a lawyer.
[00:18.52]Even today words cannot describe my upset.
[00:22.27]I’d never really failed at anything significant.
[00:26.19]After all, the University of Colorado at Boulder was a Taj Mahal—
[00:30.67]the door to judicial clerkships and prestigious law firms.
[00:34.38]But I decided to try again and went to see Clifford Mills,
[00:38.78]the dean of Westminster College of Law—
[00:41.29]a poor man’s school with no tenured professors or law review.
[00:45.10]After reading my college transcript,
[00:47.64]Dean Mills let me enroll at Westminster,
[00:50.58]on one condition,
[00:51.89]that I repeat all my first-year classes,
[00:54.43]this time paying attention.
[00:56.26]“I’ll be looking over your shoulder,”
[00:58.80]he said.
[00:59.65]One door had closed.
[01:01.63]But others opened.
[01:02.73]Given a second chance,
[01:04.59]I worked much harder,
[01:05.89]becoming fascinated by the law of evidence.
[01:08.52]In my second year the professor who taught the course passed away.
[01:12.35]I was asked to take over—
[01:14.55]inconceivable at a law school like Boulder.
[01:17.38]Evidence became a lifelong specialty,
[01:21.09]and for many years I taught classes on the subject for judges,
[01:25.16]law students and practicing lawyers throughout the country.
[01:28.43]Meanwhile I worked days in the Denver City Attorney’s office as a clerk.
[01:33.57]It was anything but glamorous.
[01:35.44]But it led to a job as an assistant city attorney after graduation.
[01:39.70]I became a county judge at age 28,
[01:43.19]one of Denver’s youngest.
[01:44.73]Later I was elected as a district judge,
[01:48.22]and then appointed by the President to the federal judiciary
[01:51.60]as a U.S. district judge.
[01:53.37]And, ultimately, I did return to Boulder—
[01:56.11]to receive the University of Colorado’s George Norlin Award,
[01:59.82]and an honorary doctorate of law.
[02:02.11]Sooner or later everyone will fall short at something important to them—
[02:06.70]whether it be a job,
[02:08.23]a dream or a relationship.
[02:10.55]Flunking out of law school,
[02:12.71]I believe, made me a better judge,
[02:14.92]it certainly taught me about the frailties of the human condition,
[02:18.30]and about the need to give people second chances.
[02:21.26]But failure also taught me that life
[02:23.98]is a road with uNPRedictable forks and unexpected tomorrows.
[02:28.13]To take advantage of them,
[02:30.45]you can’t let yourself be destroyed by a defeat,
[02:33.39]or let others set the limits on your ability to achieve.