1Ls--love 'em or hate 'em?

rather than posting the world's longest comment on evan's blog, i've decided to write another post and explain my thoughts on what he has to say about 1Ls.

normally, i LOVE 1Ls. love them. i think they are the cutest things in the whole wide world and i wish i could be a law student for forever, so i could keep having new crops of 1Ls to love. (seriously, i want to be dean ballenger.) i love that they haven't taken a law school exam yet or looked for a firm job. oh, and i love how they all have the same classes and the same schedules and their section is their world and the law school jokes and all of that.

but this time of year, i vacillate b/t loving and hating 1Ls. on the one hand, it's so cute how prepared and eager and worried they are! it's so early and they are running around with all this fear and nervousness and knowledge. they've been outlining for weeks! and having study groups! and sitting around in scott commons talking about the points of law and debating something about mens rea or the statute of frauds or whatever those other things they "taught" us about first year were.

and that's also exactly what i hate. it's how aware the 1Ls make me of how little i have done. their outlines have been done for weeks. i am maybe 1/3 of the way thru mine. and that's pushing it. they know when their finals are. i actually don't know what day they start or what day they end, and i certainly don't know when i'm planning on taking mine, or even in what order. plus, groups of people sitting around talking about "the law" have always panicked me (well, at least since i came to law school) b/c i see them and even w/o hearing them, i can tell that they know WAY more than i do and then i start to hyperventilate and it is a downward spiral and it is not pretty.

and i know that "it doesn't matter this year" and i am supposed to be all laid back and cool and that my "experience" at taking law school exams is supposed to count for something. only i am not laid back and cool. i freak out. it is what i do. well, i might add. and the evidence should clearly indicate that my "experience" on law school exams hasn't taught me anything, except that i am bad at taking them. and it does matter a bit and i really might fail and oooooh, it is just all very troublesome.

anyways, now i have to quit posting b/c i have agreed to buy people PILA cups and i am going to get lunch and then i am going to come back and finally start working. only 2.5 hours after i meant to.