Did you know that law school is just a crazy mix of elementary school and middle school. You have all your classes with the same people, you have lockers, and there is a clique that thinks they are too cool for everyone else, and you can't help laughing every thing someone says "duty" even if its the 1,000th time that week. It is pretty unbelievable how quickly you can revert back into that childish state that you thought you'd lost forever.
This is a standard day in law school exam world. Wake up at 10, call the other folks in your study group and tell them "t minus 1 hour" and get in the shower. Stand there under the water until you can get the sleeping pills out of your blood (usually about 20 minutes). Once you finally get out, dressed, and ready to work, its 11, and you know that reality, your group won't show up until at least 11:30. So, 11:30 rolls around, you sit down at the table and look at all the things you need to read, discuss, and take notes on. Its about this time that someone mentions that we haven't eaten yet. So, then you spend the next 30-45 minutes discussing where to eat, which goes something like this:
Jonathan: Alright, well, I've been telling us where to eat for the last two weeks, I'm just along for the ride
Tara: But we're at your house, so, you should choose
Aaron: I don't really care
Jonathan: I don't really care either
Tara: well, I'm not making a decision for the group
David: I'm going to make myself a sandwich
Jonathan: Damnit, alright, lets go to Honkey Barrel...
Aaron: Hell yeah
Tara: Ew...
Jonathan: Alright Tara, then were?
Tara: I don't care, but not that
Aaron: I don't care either
Jonathan: Alright, we're going to Wendy's...AGAIN!
Aaron: Hell Yeah
Tara: Alright
David: This peanut butter sandwich is good...
That is the process...waste of time? Hardly, its a warm up for the battle of semantics that is awaiting us when we get back. So, we go and eat, then we get home, and finally get to work. Mind you its now 1:30...We will then study from 1:30 to about 8:30, basically going through the book, 1 chapter at a time, discussing each case we read, pulling the important concept out of it, and trying to apply it to whatever absurd hypothetical situation we can create. This inevitably leads to a 10 minute breakdown where we laugh about the word "duty."
By 8:30, its time to eat again, and, I'll spare you the discussion, but needless to say we end up back at Wendy's. So we come home, its almost 9:30, and we still have a good chunk we want to get done. So, we work, from 9:30 to about 12:00. Again, there will be some "duty" and then we will stop to watch Charlie the Unicorn (if you are not privy to this cartoon, I recommend you immediately stop reading this column and watch this... http://newgrounds.com/portal/view/280260 take a look at the "watch the movie" link on the right, in the middle...)
So, by midnight, it is time to go to bed. Do you have any idea how hard it is to shut off your brain when you spend the better part of the last 12 hours debating the merits of Promissory Estoppel? It doesn't work. So, you take your Unisom, and you wait for sleep...It comes, eventually. Let me tell you this, there is nothing more unsettling than a dream about service of process in improper venues...That is not restful sleep. So when it comes to 10am, all you can think is, "I don't care how much I'll make when this is all over, I can't get out of this bed again..." But that is nothing that 20 minutes under the shower won't fix.
Just remember, no matter how high the degree your seeking is, there is always time to discuss the merits of duty.
stay tuned...
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