reveal to them everything there is to know about you and let the chips fall where they may

I can see that the sun is just starting to rise as I quietly walk into my bathroom a few minutes after my alarm goes off at 6:30. I try not to wake anyone as I brush my teeth, dress, put on my makeup. I finish in good time, grab my purse and leave the apartment only a few minutes after 7. It's cold outside, and I wish I'd had room to bring my winter coat with me from Ohio. I walk quickly to the metro stop and only have to wait a few minutes for the train, just as I'd planned. I get off at Farragut West, and take the 18th St and I St exit. The bus stop is right on the corner, a block away from Farragut Square. Not many people are out, though the sun is in the sky, blocked from the street by the tall buildings. I wait five minutes for the bus. Ten minutes. I start to get nervous, thinking of all the things that could go wrong, all the ways I might not make it to 4801 Massachusetts Ave NW on time. I've just gone through several possible alternative plans when the bus pulls up in front of me. I get on and start to defrost. The bus barrels along on its route, picking up and dropping off passengers. It turns onto Massachusetts Ave and continues on its way. It goes around a traffic circle and suddenly, I realize that it's hitting stops we've already been. I start to panic and pull the cord, signaling a stop requested. I get off and get my bearings. I'm at the 4100 block of Mass. I need to be at the 4800 block. It's 8:05. I have 25 minutes to get there, find rooms 401 and 402 and check in. I start walking very quickly, my lungs burning in the frozen morning air. Somehow I make it by 8:20 and find my way to the fourth floor of the American University Law School building. A few different lines snake around the floor, and I get into the one labeled "H-P." Eventually I wend my way to the table. I sign my admission ticket, stamp a light thumbprint in the small box. I'm given directions to go to room 602. When I get to the sixth floor, 602 is full already. There are a few people only a few years older than me, perhaps law students helping out for community service, trying to figure out what to do with the overflow. They decide finally to put us in room 601, but we have to move again to 603 a few minutes later when there's still not enough room. The next trial for the staff to overcome is figuring out how the lighting system works. After several administrative tasks, the test begins around 9:30. It's a long, grueling process, six sections timed at 35 minutes each. There are two analytical reasoning sections in my test, so I know that one of them will be unscored. I hope it's the one I did poorer on. When the test is over, I lead the exodus out of the building, to the bus stop across the street. I have to stand for almost 15 minutes in the biting wind, waiting for the bus. But when it comes, I get on and forget about the cold outside. It's an uneventful ride to Farragut West. I get on the metro to come home. The second-most important test of my legal career is over. The results will be out in three weeks. It'll turn out to be either a good New Years, or a bad one.