Q: What time is it?

A: The end of the school year (or, as a caricatured English-speaking German would say, "zee end of zee school year")

How did this happen?  How do I conk out in early October only to wake up in mid-April, mere days away from completing my second year of law school and heading off to the "big city" (no, not Sarnia, the other big city, Toronto) to show my employer that, yes, I have got what it takes to succeed (true or false: I rise from bed every morning while yelling that last sentence?)

It is a noted psychological phenomenon that the older you get the faster time seems to pass and I can honestly say that law school has really put that feeling into harsh relief for me.  Second year has been a blur of deadlines and events, and like Tarzan swinging from vine to vine, I found myself in the midst of something new before I was finished with the last thing.

I am hesitant to say that I didn't enjoy second year as much as first year, because it's like comparing apples and a calculator, but the sheer "what the hell is going on?" feeling of first year is something that, while uncomfortable at the time, is really quite comfortable in retrospect.  Surrounded by similar furrowed brows, the experience is collective, like Woodstock or a fight club (errr).  Second year, I have come to understand, is more an individual challenge: mooting, job-hunting, dragon-slaying (okay, that last one is fictional BUT we can agree that it would be a pretty daunting task all by yourself, no?) 

Unsurprisingly, then, the group work component of Corporate Law and Civil Procedure brought back some of that collective feeling.  Last week I pulled my first (academic) all-nighter in a long time, and did it at the school, no less.  (Editor's Note: it was noted by others, and subsequently confirmed by the author, that one will see some strange things in the school at 5am.  Straaaaaange things.)

But I am left thinking less about the year that has passed than the year that is to come.  Third Year.  Wait.  What?  I remember what 3Ls were like when I started.  They were confident, self-assured.  They knew stuff.  They were the 8th graders of law school, y'know?  Back of the school bus, wispy moustaches, Reebok pumps.  They were all that.  I mean, sure, I, too, have a wispy moustache but it certainly doesn't mean that I know everything.  Shucks, I still wonder if I know ANYTHING.

I could go on.  At length.  But I won't.  Because if you get what I'm talking about you needn't hear any more: you already know.  And if you don't really "get" the feelings about which I ramble than you are likely bored to tears.

Suffice to say that, yikes, school is flying by, and by extension, so is life.  Which reminds me that I really need to pay attention to all those things that I wanted to accomplish by the age of 30:

-Finish school
-Buy a car
-Win a Grammy for Best Latin Album
-Travel to the moon (and back, please)
-Remember (just once) to carry my AirMiles card with me to the grocery store

Lofty, I know.  But impending adulthood can really light a fire under one's caboose.

Back soon.

Posted by Chris Crighton on April 18, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

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You're never going to win a latin grammy at the rate you're going, amigo. The "H" in hola is silent, not invisible.

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