Wow. I'm glad I don't have a "cyberspace persona." If I did, I might be slightly irritated by the approach the Career Planning Center of the law school has taken regarding the proliferation of its students with pages on Facebook and MySpace. Apparently, law students are no longer allowed to have personalities, interests, significant others or political views and certainly are no longer allowed to make bad jokes and use bad language.

I will be the first to admit that I might be a little old to maintain a Facebook or MySpace page. Perhaps it's a little immature to post stupid jokes, favorite quotes and pictures of myself at various events with my friends. Perhaps I should grow up and stop "poking" my college-age siblings and cousins. But the fact that I do so does not mean I am unworthy of the profession I will be joining in a month.

Certainly, those individuals who post pictures of themselves breaking criminal laws or discussing explicit sexual exploits might want to rethink those additions to their Web pages as they approach a job search or admission to the bar. But suggesting that students use the "test" proposed by the CPC ("Would I present this on a resume . . . ?") to evaluate their webpage entries is inappropriate and unduly restrictive.

Interestingly, although we are all enrolled at a Jesuit institution and are entering the legal profession, we are not all cookie-cutter images of each other and of the stereotypical navy blue pinstripe-suited attorney at a "big firm." Contrary to the suggestion of the CPC that I would not ever want an employer to know my political persuasion (including, God-forbid, my views on abortion or terrorism), sexual preference or sometimes-lazy tendencies, I consider my personal life very important to who I am and the attorney I will soon be. And frankly, I'm pretty sure that at least a strong minority of my bosses would find it amusing that I consider myself an "indentured servant" while conducting excessive amounts of legal research for them each week. I am connected to the Marquette Law School and to the profession of law. But I also have a personality and life outside of law school and enjoy dim-witted jokes about "fine scotch and finer women" and discussing my political views just as much as the next person. And yes, sometimes I curse and engage in "weekend behavior." If a firm would choose not to hire me for those reasons, I wouldn't want to practice law there.

So as a disclaimer to the CPC and anyone else perusing my Web pages: I'm not always funny, I'm not always perfectly appropriate, I have Facebook "friends" who exhibit immature behavior and I sometimes question whether law school was the perfect fit for my life. But I'm going to be a damn good attorney.