Reflections on my law school social life

I haven't posted in a while, so I think I'd better say something on here. This fall 3L semester has been flying by incredibly fast, as exam schedules came out over a week ago! Where has the semester gone?

I'm coming to grips with the end of law school slowly and cautiously. As much as I've decried the student life and rolled my eyes at the heavy work load, I am really going to miss this lifestyle because it's what I've gotten used to. But the thing about law school is that each of the three years is really quite distinct from the others. First year was all that craziness that everyone talks about, but it was more: it was a bunch of people all thrown together and forced to find camraderie. My section, in particular, was pretty close and fond of one another, even if we bickered and gossiped and preferred some over others. Even the gunners were much beloved. Second year some of those friendships sputtered as us 2Ls were cast to the winds of varying class schedules, certain of us picked up by the Journal team, others by the Moot Court and Trial Teams. The slackers among us often found ourselves alone in the lobby at lunchtime where up to 50 people once congregated in nervous enthusiasm, while the harder workers holed up in library carrels or in the Law Review office. Now it's third year, and I'm hard-pressed to find myself on campus long enough to even notice who is and isn't there. I hardly recognize the faces of people walking the halls, and when I do it's a quick smile, hello and "how've you been?" before we're off to our respective classes. When class is over, I book it for the train, not just because I want to get home but because there's no reason to stay.

Closing time is nearly upon us.

I wish that I could say that law school has brought me some really close friendships with new people. I'm certain that my Richmond psychologist would've been happy to know that I'd branched out socially. Instead, I have boatloads of people I know to say hi to, several people I consider drinking buddies when our schedules line up, a handful of budding friendships that have wilted for one reason or another and a girlfriend-in-law (BIL's gf). It's worked out okay, and I have no doubt that as long as we continue to live in Big City I'll continue to see familiar faces around town, have the occasional night out and maybe reminisce once in a while about this or that funny thing that happened during our law school days. But I'll admit to being a little jealous of my classmates who appear to have made lasting friendships of one another, whose facebook photo albums are filled with fun outings and who don't need to go to campus to hang out because they call each other all the time anyway. It's a problem that's older than law school, my friendship envy, but as I sense the curtains drawing on this phase of my life, it's hard not to evaluate myself and wonder if I could've done better.

It's just something I'm thinking about, because as close as I am to the end of law school, there's still one more semester, two more rounds of finals and a bar exam to pass before I'm actually done with this chapter of my life. That leaves plenty of time to make the most of it.