Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Being A 4L Sucks

It feels so strange walking around the law school without the familiar faces of the people I entered law school with. It's kind of depressing and it constantly reminds me of one small but obvious fact: Things will never be the same! Officially I feel like my "traditional" law school experience is over- although I have rarely been a "traditional" law student with commuting 2 hours one way, getting married and taking a semester off to have a baby. But still, those people I bonded with are gone.

I'm stuck in a sea of new faces. These people will have no idea what I mean when I go all 1L contracts professor on them by pretending to shoot them with my finger gun. They won't laugh when I blurt out the name of crazy kid who was caught throwing snowballs and was almost kicked out of law school for inappropriate student body presidential campaigns. They won't know what I'm talking about when I reminise over evil and infamous Property professor who wasn't hired back because of how much she was the devil. My law school history had been wiped out because there is no one, besides me, that is here to remember.

Also, all my old friends are out traveling the world or starting new jobs and I'm sitting in front of That Guy II- he spits when he talks and I can feel the spit bubbled landing on the back of my neck- ew! To make it worse, I have to remind EVERYONE ELSE that I'm a 4L because in each class we had to go around the room and say our name, our level and "something about ourselves." (Notice how no one ever really says anything about themselves-- like I love horsies and disco or I am an alcoholic or I haven't washed my underwear in a week-- it's all rather cryptic and general like-- I'm from Seattle or I went to Pretentious University.)

Well in one class, I got tired of saying I was a 4L- so I proudly claimed to be a "Super 3L" and that this was my last semester. I was waiting for the professor to chuckle or comment on my Super status. But he didn't. Then I realized the whole class probably thought I meant I was graduating a semester early rather than late and now they think I'm a jerk for proudly bragging about it and calling myself "super." Fail.

I still haven't received enough books in the mail to actually do my homework this week and I have no excuse because I'm a 4L and I should know better (right?). And I realized I just spent $70 for the wrong book anyway.

4 comments:

Paragon2Pieces said...

right there with you!

Butterflyfish said...

Ugh, sorry Cee. I have a good friend who had a minor breakdown, dropped out of law school after two semesters, and then came back last year... she's doing 3L now and her (our) whole cohort has graduated. She is miserable and lonely, but she doesn't have an awesome hubby or baby to go home to, so...

je said...

Sorry that this semester has started out feeling so lonely. What a bummer. I hope you find a few classmates around campus who are in the same boat as you so you have some people to commiserate with.

Your super-3L story is hilarious. I have to admit that one of my favorite things about your blog is your on-going ability to make me laugh out loud with your open-mouth-insert-foot tales. I love them because I can relate! This past weekend, at a bridal shower, in a fit of idiocy, I asked a pregnant woman if she was having a "surprise baby" meaning did she want the sex of the baby to be a surprise. How horribly awkward when she responded, "No, it was planned."

Andrea said...

That sucks. :( I felt the same way after everyone from my masters program graduated, and I had to wait through 1L and two more semesters after that before I took comps and graduated. By that time, even the class after me had already graduated, and I didn't know anybody, not even some of the new faculty. I'd been so tight with all of my classmates, and to be there, going through the motions without them, was just horribly sad. :( I hope it gets better for you, and maybe you'll make friends with some of the newbies.