Yesterday morning, our civil procedure professor told us about a class, a few years back, with a horrifying reputation that persists to this day. Their 1L year, when they were still divided into sections, the competition boiled over. People were hiding library books, lying to each other, and doing anything necessary to get an edge on the ever important curve. Apparently, to this day, she denies writing letters of recommendation for members of this particular class.
They tell us, at every juncture: your classmates will be your colleagues for your entire career.
They tell us all sorts of things at every juncture: Lawyers become alcoholics, network, get experience your first semester, don't worry about grades but grades determine the rest of your life, legal writing is important (though it's worth the least amount of credits), etc, etc, etc, all down the line.
This week though, I've internalized that first one. My classmates will be my colleagues during my legal career in Cleveland.
Most of the sage wisdom imparted by the administration has something of an ominous tone, and that particular piece is no exception. But the tone of delivery does the fact a disservice. Knowing that I'll be working in a community made up of people I'm in class with right now, for the most part, is one of the best pieces of news I've heard about the legal world.
I like the people I'm in class with right now. They are good, brilliant, wonderful people who, even when class gets long and the workload unbearable (though we always find a way to bear it), make every day a little brighter and easier to get through. It's like we're all fighting together, like it's us against the complex material. Thankfully, we are winning.
Law school is a competitive environment, just like the job market and the adversarial judicial system. But that does not mean we have to be enemies. I think a few people might be obsessed with that idea. Maybe, at some point, I was too.
But I'm past it. We're all in this together. I'll keep trying my best, with regards to grades now, job interviews, and work later. But my classmates now and future colleagues, even those who get on my nerves from time to time, well, they're in this with me too.
Last semester, I don't think I quite got it. I know upperclassmen who still haven't.
But we've been thrust into a fire and as I see us, as a group, growing and learning together in apparent ways. At least our section is a community and I think, for the most part, we actually care about each other like a community should.
I'd imagine there will be a cutthroat side to everything, when business starts getting in the way in a few years. That's to be expected. But when it happens, it will be the communal experiences we're sharing now that inform how we treat each other then.
I can't speak for the law school experience others might have, but, at least for me, and at least for nearly everyone in our section, it seems to be that we're interested in solving problems, not creating them.
Though we're only two weeks in on this new semester, next year, we won't have a section. Everything will get closer and closer to the "real world."
And that's why it's so important now, while we're all just 1L's, learning what it means to "learn law and live Justice," that we learn how to share this life, to some off the wall degree.
The situation always turns a bit neurotic, when you throw a bunch of law students together. But at least, I hope, in ten years, professors are telling stories about the section who felt more like a family than a team of rivals.
-Zack
"The mood it changes like the wind, hard to control where it begins"
-The Naked and Famous
My favorite part about going to grad school was the bond I formed with my classmates. While I did make close friends in undergrad, the grad friendships were formed out of that communal struggle to succeed: like you said, being "thrust into a fire" together. As a cohort, we studied together, researched together, complained to each other about our advisers, and even sent each other encouraging text messages on nights before big tests. When we had free time, we went to the bar for trivia night or blue-grass/barbecue night. And unlike undergrad, it was so hard to make friends outside of the people in your program, which made the bonds feel even closer I think.
ReplyDeleteI miss it. I struggled hard with the academics and workload of grad school and I don't think I would do it again, but I severely miss the friendships. Most of my cohort graduated in May and left me feeling surprisingly alone, despite the few that stayed and the new friends that I made after their departure. Two years is too short in the social realm of it all.
The nice thing about engineering, though, is that it is inherently non-competitive and much emphasis is placed on working as a team. It sounds like it would be difficult to study with someone whom you are also competing with. Huh, something for me to think about :-)