I was walking back from the library tonight, listening to music on my ipod, when some sappy emo song came on. Instead of skipping over it I began to think about the meaning of love and relationships. I thought, love means being there for someone. Actually, it means knowing that someone will be there for you. Actually it can’t be either of those things in isolation it has to be a combination of the two. There was a phrase on the tip of my tongue that really embodied what I was thinking. Then it dawned on me; I was thinking of the phrase “reciprocal conventional inducement,” and that I had just managed to convey a Dashboard Confessional song in terms of my contracts textbook.
I’m telling you this story not because it is hilarious (which it is), but also as a preliminary answer to the question I have been getting from friends and family all week: How is exam week going?
On paper, exam week is the most academically intense thing I have ever done. I wake up super-early every morning. I read and outline, until the wee hours, consume all meals out of a can or a cafeteria depending on where I chose to study that day, and then head back home to get a few hours of shut eye. All the while, I am constantly second guessing incredibly asinine things like whether or not I should have invested in commercial study guides, or if my outlines are too long or too short, or whether my computer is liable to crash in the middle of an exam.
I say “on paper” because the fact that everyone I know is in the exact same boat is making the experience surprisingly enjoyable. When I get into the library every day I make a beeline for the pocket of people from my section that I know are in the building. We sit around, eat snacks, make jokes, and commiserate about our workload together. If it wasn’t for all of this pesky reading, it would feel more like camp than law school. On top of all this, the school itself has really tried to make the experience as enjoyable as possible. Tonight, the school hosted a midnight breakfast food study break in the Hark. It was pretty good motivation to hurry up and get my work done, knowing that there were eggs and bacon waiting for me next door. Also, as nerdy as it sounds, sitting around all day figuring out the depths of the subjects that I have been learning all semester, and then debating the issues with my classmates, has actually been pretty informative.
The flipside to this well balanced work/social atmosphere is the fact that exam fever has driven us all a little loopy in ways that are patently awesome. Earlier today, the guy sitting next to me in the library fell asleep while still sitting upright with his hands on his keyboard. Yesterday, I got multiple instant messages when my friends found the hallway lined with bean bag chairs in Langdell. The day before that, I looked up from my computer and realized that at the table across from me there was a group of students all listening to music together and flailing their arms in the air in unison.
So far, exam week has been equal parts grueling, informative, and absurd. It’s actually getting pretty late. I should probably head to sleep so I can do it all again tomorrow.
- Anit
