Reflections -- It's a Circle Now
Today is admitted students day at law school. The hallways are full of eager-looking students, still in awe of the marble and stainless steel architecture. They're accompanied by a few pairs of parents distinctly on the older side of middle aged, looking vaguely uncomfortable. A few law students (the ambassadors) are focused on helping with the programs and activities, while the rest of us bustle by, viewing this event like any of the other special programs that go on here -- a slight intrusion which has no bearing on our lives.
It's a messy day in New York, with a "winter mix," as the Weather Channel would often call it. While this morning was snowy and windy, the "mix" has transitioned entirely to driving rain by this afternoon. Not to worry, though, as law school custodians have been re-tasked to run a coat/umbrella check for the new admits.
It's somewhat poingent for me, because three years ago, on the first Thursday of March, 2003, I was the admitted student. I made my first trip to New York City full of expectations and fear. Ironically, the weather was almost the same: rain mixed with snow, with plenty of wind to boot. Instead of a large sign inside the front doors saying, "Welcome Class of 2009," the sign said "Class of 2006."
I got the white-glove treatment, with cocktail parties, tuxedoed waitstaff, and smiling current students showing us around. I was wowed, and so remarkably impressed by the power that the institution seemed to confer.
I was a different person then. I was more sheltered, and less worldly than I am now. I had lived my life inside a fairly limited, and fairly homogeneous, sphere. There was something more out there, I thought -- a life of greater opportunities and experiences that I wanted to access. To me, moving to New York and going to law school was a way to tap these ethereal goals.
I was also much more sanguine about the prospect of law school. I thought it would be the start of an exciting new career -- a return to what I was "good at" after a few years of "wandering in the wilderness."
Needless to say, the entire experience of coming to law school in New York hasn't been nearly the same as I imagined it. In some ways, it's been worse. I've largely hated my classes, disliked many of my classmates, and have little joy in my impending career as a lawyer. On other levels, I've changed and grown in ways I could never have imagined on a snowy March day three years ago.
So while I look on with jaded experience at the wide-eyed excitement of the newly admitted students, I also know that while things may not turn out quite the way you plan, they often end up pretty damn good.
It's a messy day in New York, with a "winter mix," as the Weather Channel would often call it. While this morning was snowy and windy, the "mix" has transitioned entirely to driving rain by this afternoon. Not to worry, though, as law school custodians have been re-tasked to run a coat/umbrella check for the new admits.
It's somewhat poingent for me, because three years ago, on the first Thursday of March, 2003, I was the admitted student. I made my first trip to New York City full of expectations and fear. Ironically, the weather was almost the same: rain mixed with snow, with plenty of wind to boot. Instead of a large sign inside the front doors saying, "Welcome Class of 2009," the sign said "Class of 2006."
I got the white-glove treatment, with cocktail parties, tuxedoed waitstaff, and smiling current students showing us around. I was wowed, and so remarkably impressed by the power that the institution seemed to confer.
I was a different person then. I was more sheltered, and less worldly than I am now. I had lived my life inside a fairly limited, and fairly homogeneous, sphere. There was something more out there, I thought -- a life of greater opportunities and experiences that I wanted to access. To me, moving to New York and going to law school was a way to tap these ethereal goals.
I was also much more sanguine about the prospect of law school. I thought it would be the start of an exciting new career -- a return to what I was "good at" after a few years of "wandering in the wilderness."
Needless to say, the entire experience of coming to law school in New York hasn't been nearly the same as I imagined it. In some ways, it's been worse. I've largely hated my classes, disliked many of my classmates, and have little joy in my impending career as a lawyer. On other levels, I've changed and grown in ways I could never have imagined on a snowy March day three years ago.
So while I look on with jaded experience at the wide-eyed excitement of the newly admitted students, I also know that while things may not turn out quite the way you plan, they often end up pretty damn good.
posted by N at 3:42 PM
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