First Day Back

What an odd sort of feeling one gets when walking the halls of an old, familiar building. It is almost eerie, the sensation I mean, to go back to a place you once inhabited, and act as if you never left. I suppose a weaker sensation hit me upon my return to Green Hall for my 2L year of law school. It really didn't feel like a new year had started. There was no orientation or "welcome back" ceremony that some places put on. And believe me, I'm not advocating for a week long orientation for law school every year. I did that once. I'm done. Never again.

But I suppose the best way to describe my time so far in law school, is to imagine the myself at an airport. The application process is like buying an airplane ticket. I chose my destination (law degree), and I gave them my credit card information (application info) and I hoped I had enough to purchase the darn thing and that my card wouldn't be denied. So I show up to the airport with all my luggage (books and things), hand them my ticket (necessary forms) and they point me in the general direction of where I'm supposed to go (orientation). Here's where the metaphor really sinks in.

My first year was all that time walking towards the terminal and going through security. I had to jump through hoops and walk through the metal detector and all that jazz just to get to the hallway, leading me to my gate. And I kept walking and walking and then summer came - BAM! I hit that moving sidewalk at a fast pace and next thing I know, the summer is over, the time flew by, and I'm still walking, ever diligent towards that next moving sidewalk which will take me to that final stretch of runway carpet. And the whole time I'm wondering why I chose the flight with the boarding gate at the end of the hallway.

This second year feels not like the first, and not like a new year. It simply feels like I'm still walking. It's like that feeling when you step off that airport moving sidewalk. My pace hasn't changed, but it feels like time has...somehow.

So here's to the new school year and it's unchanged landscape. And to students everywhere - keep walking. :)