Much has been written on the meaning of the holidays. Thanksgiving is easy; it’s right there in the name, and it’s a secular holiday. Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa on the other hand… Is it the particular religious/spiritual underpinnings of each? Or something more universal? Spending time with friends and family? And what about the New Year? Is it looking back on the year that just ended, in order to learn its lessons? Is it celebrating a (fairly arbitrary) fresh start?

Well, I happen to think it’s the process outlined above, which is to say that the holidays are a time for reflection. That includes taking stock of what we ought to be grateful for, considering how we can improve the plight of those less fortunate, and how we can do more (or less, if that’s required) on our next trip around the sun.

So, here’s a fairly open-ended blog post on that thought process as it applies to Blueprint’s mission to provide the best LSAT preparation to future lawyers.

First, we at Blueprint are grateful for our students. We poke fun at a lot of things — it’s in our company DNA — but we take our mission of helping turn out the next generation of lawyers very seriously. Without crowing too much, the feedback we get from our students leads us to believe that we provide a valuable service. We don’t just train people to do well on the LSAT. The LSAT tests one’s ability to think like a lawyer, and so we train future lawyers to hit the ground running in law school. All lawyer jokes aside, the world needs competent, talented lawyers.

Second, looking back at the year that was, lots of great stuff happened on our end. In addition to the thousands of interactions with our students, we rolled out a new iOS app, made plenty of updates to our curriculum and our online tools, and introduced a new round of brilliant LSAT instructors to the world.

Finally, looking forward to the year ahead, we’ve got plenty of exciting things to share with you, both LSAT-specific and not-so-LSAT-specific. But we’re not going to give all the new awesomeness away yet! Stay tuned.

In the meantime, here’s Darth Vader’s funeral pyre turned into a 5-hour Yule log. You are so very welcome.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVJzibVS2YM[/youtube]