Signing Off But Not Really

Today is my last day of class in law school (provided of course, I do not fail the PC III exam which, let’s face it, is no sure thing). This is it. I’m done. One foot out the door and ready to go off and conquer the world. So it’s a good time to take stock of things in a public forum where I am open to mockery and ridicule. Or worse yet, you could ignore it. Then again, this is going to be rather long-winded, so I won’t blame you for clicking over to Deadspin.

Chris hung up his blogging spurs when he graduated, but I am not going to follow his example. First off, this blog has never really been devoted to law school all that much. It’s been about me. Or more accurately, it’s been one guy’s attempt to stay sane during the pressures of law school and realize that maybe this isn’t all that important. It’s ok to laugh at ourselves and to realize there’s a whole world outside the grounds of this school. I think we lose track of that.

School consumes our lives. We go to school together, we study together, we hang out together. Even when we go out, the conversation always seems to drift to law school. And we’re staring a whole lifetime of this in the face. Only soon we’ll talk about our practice and our trials. Which is cool. You should love what you do, and I do love the law. Maybe not all the time, but I’ve enjoyed my time here. And I do look forward to a lifetime of this. But if I spend all of my days doing nothing but talking about law, I’m going to find a very tall tower and very high-powered gun.

This has been a poor attempt to stay sane. Stop and smell the roses some times. Take a look at our wide world and realize that a lot of it is pretty ridiculous. And that’s the things which make life worth living. And just because I’m (hopefully) graduating next Saturday, that doesn’t mean I’ll stop being interested in UFOs and my fictional album. I’ll always need an outlet like this, if just to make myself laugh. Or just to take the ten minutes to step away from the important things and revel in the trivial. Because the trivial stuff makes life fun.

I would have liked for someone to pick up the void left by Chris, Swanburg, and I and start their own student blog. OK, Swanburg’s still chugging, but he’s off at B-school. I’ve found this to be a rewarding experience, if only to have someone walk up to me before class and tell me they read something on here and they laughed. Or thought I was a moron. Either way, I was happy to help people through in my very small way. I’ve never intentionally taken a shot at anyone, mainly because I know every student here works hard and they don’t deserve some jackass to take potshots at them. You can do anything if you like the people you were with, and I have genuinely enjoyed the company of all of my classmates, my professors, and all of the staff. Especially the staff. You guys rock, and never get enough credit for making this place run and keeping us all sane.

However, this blog has been a burden at times. I’ve felt the need to crank out content, even when I had nothing to say. I did my best, and I hope I was a good read most of the time. I think I know why no one has picked up the student blogger mantle, as we’re told at every turn why one of these things is a bad idea. And I think that’s a shame. I think we are so concerned with scaring off a potential employer who can dig through these archives at the expense of fostering a community. I’d like to think I’ve done that, at least to some degree. It’s always been my goal to make this place a little nicer than how I found it. To give us a small outlet where we could stop being law students for just one second and act like human beings. At the end of the day, being lawyers is something we will do, but it will not define us. I will always need an outlet.

So, after two and half years, my law school career is over. Well, almost. It hasn’t always been fun. Hell, sometimes it’s been awful. But if it would have been easy, then it wouldn’t have been worth doing. And this wasn’t just worth doing, it was the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I’ve learned so much in the past two and half years, and not just about the law. I, at the risk of being even sappier than I have already been, will treasure each and every one of you. Thanks for sharing this time with me. I hope you enjoyed it. I surely have.

I’ll close this off with a quote from SLC Punk, because it’s my blog and I can do that:

“In the end, I was just another poseur.”