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So in preparing for exams, I’ve realized that there are generally a few type of people in the law school world — at least when it comes to exams.

The first group are those that are searching for pity. For some reason, these people think they are either the center of the universe or that their life is somehow so much worse than everybody else’s. They then think that everybody else in the world should hear about how much their life sucks. These are the people who frequently post facebook statuses similar to “Been in the library for 12 hours. Wah!” or “Man, outlining for 2 days straight sucks.” Or the people who continually talk about the things they’d rather be doing besides studying (e.g. moving to Panama, finding a young rich man/woman to run away with, opening their own hotdog stand, etc.). These people bug me. We all get it: law school takes lots of time. But please stop announcing to the world how much you hate it or the myriad of things you’d do if not “forced” to be here. Because the fact is, if you were serious, you’d leave without making such a big fuss about it. The only point to all the objection you constantly bring up is so you can get attention — either from your peers, which won’t happen because we’re all in the same boat, or from your friends, who I am sure are just as sick and tired of hearing about your whining as the rest of us.

Another group of people are those who somehow manage to stay above all the stress and competition. If you were to ask these people what they thought about exams, they would say something like: “Hey bro, que sera sera. Can you dig?” or “I’ll try my best and whatever happens happens.” These people bug me too, but for different reasons. Instead of just being annoyed with these people for who they are or what they do, I am more annoyed at myself for not being able to be them. I clearly do not belong to this group, but sometimes wish I could because they just seem so relaxed and worry-free most days. But maybe there’s something to be said for feeling the pressure and having it push you to perform, not that these more-relaxed individuals aren’t pushed to perform.

Anyway, the point is: exams are coming up again, which is different from most other schools out there who only have two rounds of exams (lucky us, right?). This time around we have exams in contracts and criminal — so I’ve been reading the Restatement (2d, of course), the UCC, the MPC, and relevant case law like crazy for the past few days — two more weeks of this slog left to go. Yippee.

On a final note, like Soleil, I have finally secured some summer employment, which is great because I was starting to get a little worried thinking I might end up waiting tables or something. Incidentally, I would have made infinity times more money waiting tables instead of what I’m actually doing: a judicial internship, which is unpaid …. and does not qualify for a public service grant from the Law School. Soooooo, basically, finding money to live on this summer is going to be …. interesting.

As I noted in the previous post, we just turned in our open memo assignment last week. The completion of that assignment, while joyous with mimosas and pancakes, also signals that the end is near — the end of the quarter, and with that comes exams. So last week was my last fun week for a while. And it certainly was a fun week. After completing each 1L writing assignment, the law school hosts a party for all students: $20 for an open bar night somewhere. Last quarter it was the Party of the First Part and this quarter it was called The Over the Hump Party. I think last quarter’s party was probably more enjoyable, maybe partly because the venue for this quarter’s party was like an Indie Rock bar — sorry hipsters, but your music is lame. It was especially lame since all most people wanted to do was throw back some drinks, have a good time, and maybe head out onto the dance floor for some good old-fashioned bump and grind. And Indie Rock is most certainly NOT conducive to bumping and grinding, thats’ for sure.

Anyway, the day after the Hump Party was Friday, which means Wine Mess Day. But this was an extra special wine mess. Almost immediately after “the mess” (held an hour later this week) was the Law School Musical, which was hilarious. For those who are unfamiliar with what a Law School Musical consists of, basically, its a chance when students get to make fun of, and other students get to laugh at, all the things we deal with on a daily basis. The jokes this year included putting a giant Chinese dragon-like elephant on stage when discussing OCI and the economy …. the economy thereby being likened to “the elephant in the room.” So clever. Other jokes were just unabashed attacks on the idiosyncrasies and quirks of most of our professors, equally clever and hilarious. And literally nothing was sacred — attacks on the way they dress, their national origin, their senses of humor (or lack thereof), their age, and weight were all fair game. One might think that professors get pretty upset with all this laughter at their expense (indeed, I have since learned that many professors forego attending for this very reason), but given the level of humiliation they put all of us through 5 days a week, I really don’t care that much. Plus, one of the cardinal rules of having a decent sense of humor, I think, is being able to laugh at yourself.

Anyway, after those fun events, and after recovering from a splitting hangover headache, it was time to focus back on school. Yes, exams are coming, and this quarter they cover twice as much material as last quarter. So I’m back to being the library on a consistent (and perhaps constant) basis — outlining, reviewing notes, reading supplements, etc. in an effort to try to make this quarter’s grades just a bit better than the last. So goodbye for now, fun. Hope to see you again possibly in March?

I didn’t think I would originally come to UChicago when I first was accepted. At that point (roughly one year ago, or a little more), I had been accepted to several other schools, some of which were higher in the US News rankings and some of which offered me much more generous scholarships. But, I decided I would visit the school anyway just in case and see if I was missing anything. After all, I had never been to Chicago and thought this might be a great opportunity to visit a new city. When I got here, I found something extremely unique (to reference the Admissions Committee’s 0L e-mail titles). Professors were actively conversing with students not only about legal doctrines and principles. But also about their favorite beers, Cubs or White Sox games, and other non-law-related topics. It seemed like everyone (student to student, faculty to faculty, and faculty to student) genuinely got along. It was this feeling of community that ultimately drew me here. While other schools were certainly impressed me with who they got to speak at their Admitted Students Weekends or whatever, I preferred Chicago.

After coming here and experiencing life as a 1L for almost two quarters, I can say that this first impression was pretty correct. Every week at Coffee Mess (free bagels, donuts, fruit, yogurt, and coffee) on Wednesday mornings, you can frequently and often see several deans and professors sitting down with students to chat about really anything. Yes, sometimes it’s kind of annoying in that your group might be talking about something incredibly inappropriate and then be quickly stifled by an oncoming sexagenarian … no pun intended, get it? Yeah, that was a lame joke. Anyway, it can sometimes be annoying, but most of the time it’s pretty cool. As another example, we recently turned in our winter memo (the open one that had me doing crazy amounts of research and what not). Just next to the “turn-in boxes” the Wine Mess Committee or something (wine mess = crazy cheap drinks and free food every friday afternoon at The Law School) provided free mimosas and several of our 1L professors cooked the lowly and depressed first-years some delicious pancakes for breakfast.

Point in brief: where else can you get that? Maybe other law schools have similar professor-student relations and maybe I’m wrong. But anyway, I just thought it was cool.

Sorry if this post was pretty lame and there is less complaining about how lame law school life is. The truth is, after a certain amount of weeks of the same grinding routine, you get kind of used to it. Now that the memo is done, it’s time to get to outlining … which, by the way, is the most boring and trivial (and yet necessary) activity created by man … besides maybe ice dancing, although this last activity is by no means necessary.

Lastly, maybe things aren’t looking so gloomy anymore for me partly because I’ve recently been pursuing a new special someone and I seem to have somehow managed to get her to like me. So that’s nice.

I’d like to post a non-aggressive response to one of my commenters from last week. I’m sorry if my posts seem to be ongoing and endless rants, especially if those rants are particularly depressing or “fatalistic.” The fact of the matter is this: I dislike law school so far. I don’t think this is in any way a remarkable or groundbreaking insight. In fact, I think perhaps the majority of people who attend law school hate 1L year, which does not reflect on their success or quality of life later on down the road as lawyers. Maybe I take it a little far sometimes. My only excuse: poetic (or narrative) license. It’s easy to insert a little drama here and there, especially once the ball gets rolling in writing these posts and one steps back and thinks about how ridiculous and upsetting the whole law school regime is. In fact, if you do enjoy law school as a 1L, we have a term for you: gunner. Or, if not a gunner, just one of those people who enjoys talking about the law so much you find time to talk about it at lunch, during breaks between classes, while watching sports or drinking on the weekends, before my morning coffee, etc.

In short, these are the people who enjoy the law so much that they often ruin my day by trying to talk about it all the time. We have a name for these people here in the University of Chicago’s class of 2012: “The Intellectual Table.” There is literally a table of students that gather in our lounge area every day to discuss and read the law while most others are chatting about their weekends or just generally hanging out. On the opposite side of the cerebral spectrum within our class, there is another group. This group enjoys thinking about pretty much everything else other than the law — things such as the most recent episode of “Jersey Shore” (also ruining my day), late-night outings in Chicago, etc. We also have a name for these people in our class: “The Frat.”

I know, it is kind of sad that our class has formed this silly cliques and, as a side note, I am a proud abstainer from the quiet and yet ever-present “rivalry.” But, I feel it’s just bound to happen in a class so small where everyone knows everyone else. Certainly, there are probably more cliques out there that I am neglecting (it’s actually very sad), but, to me, these are the most prominent … or perhaps the groups who are each other’s most exact opposites. I imagine them like the Jets and Sharks in “West Side Story.” Not hardened street thugs. But, rather, singing and dancing law students — prancing around one another in some kind of faux-knife fight, except instead of knives, the only weapons we have are … well, nothing. I guess “The Intellectual Table” has their books and “The Frat” has maybe their gym weights or something. Furthermore, I can’t think of any star-crossed lovers or anything within each of these groups (a Maria and Tony) … I might be able to, but I’d rather spend my morning working on this awful memo or reading for tomorrow’s classes.

In any case, the point is: nobody enjoys 1L year, unless you’re part of “The Intellectual Table” (let’s call them the Sharks … for no particular reason). If you are, please don’t ruin my day and talk about law school unless it is absolutely necessary … even then, watch out. Point #2: law school is like “West Side Story”??? I dunno, I’m still working on that hypothesis.