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Friday, October 13, 2006

Lowered expectations


I got a B+ on my first major classroom writing assignment in 10 years, a memo for basic legal skills. While I may have said previously that I would not be satisfied with less than an A on anything, I think it is safe to say I was doing a happy dance when I got this back today. I even got a "Good job"...I couldn't be happier if she had given me a smiley face sticker. I also indulged in a bit of schadenfreude after observing the dissatisfaction of a classmate with whom I'm a wee bit competitive, that is, until I found out my grade was lower than a classmate who is universally regarded as the most annoying person in school. That's what I get...apparently karma counts for lawyers too.


In other Christopher news, I think law school might be ruining my sense of humor. At the very least, it has ruined "Legally Blonde" for me and anyone else who might watch it with me. Everything happening in the movie I judge based on the reality of law school, and I have to say I'm even irritating myself. When Holland Taylor is lecturing, I'm commenting, "Why on earth would she begin the semester with subject matter jurisdiction? Those people don't even know how the case gets to court in the first place yet!" When Elle Woods goes to interview a witness in a murder case, I comment, "They would never let a 1L do that! She hasn't even had a class in evidence yet!" When I'm commenting, I know Craiggers is thinking, "This is a movie about a girl who takes her chihuahua to court with her in a purse...let it go!" But of course he is too nice to say it. That is the difference between the two of us...I'd never be that nice!

And finally, someone mentioned recently that I have not mentioned all the surgery I had in June in quite some time. I am healing up still...I had some complications with stitches breaking, so my mouth healed oddly and is still stiff due to the scar tissue. I didn't get rid of everything, and I'm not entirely happy with the results. It is a million times better than it was, but I don't look entirely normal as of yet. I probably need maybe one more on my cheek and some work done on my eye since they mostly skipped that. It is quite amazing how long it takes to heal after facial surgery. I suppose a facelift isn't quite the instant beauty folks think it is...I hear the healing is quite similar to what I'm experiencing. I'm giving it another month or so, and I'll post some pictures. After that, I probably won't get to finish the surgical journey until I finish school. I had been told I would be finished prior to school starting so I would still have health insurance, but that isn't happening. I'm okay with that. The journey isn't over yet.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can't remember the scene in Legally Blonde about the 1L interviewing the person, but I just got off the phone with my daughter ( who is interning in the Public Defender's Office as a senior in college) and she is doing a lot of stuff that I cannot believe they are letting her do! She goes to the jails and interviews the accused persons, interviews witnesses, watches surveillance tapes, sets up and conducts meetings with other governmental agency personnel involved in cases, etc. Some of the stuff she has told me has made my skin crawl. She is learning SO much criminal stuff and legalese. And she loves it!

BTW, next week she is going with three other students to St.Louis to a law school "fair" sponsored by the MO. Pre-Law Advisors organization. She's hoping to have her LSAT score before then. She is amazing me with her ardor for going to Law School when a year ago she didn't really know what she wanted to do.

A B+ IS very good and who cares about that annoying person. Just remember - what goes around comes around! Obviously, she/he doesn't know how to "make friends and influence people" like you do, Christopher!

Julie

Ces Adorio said...

I cannot imagine you thinking that Legally Blonde had anything to do with Law Scool reality. The College of Nursing where I took some graduate courses was housed in the college of law. The only remnant of some frou-frou student who did not belong there but pushed her way through was the dictator's daughter. All the other students were into their books - books - books while at school, although they went out in the evenings...

I agree with the B+ and the Good Job comment. Now you will know how to top that. Best of luck!

ChristopherM said...

Oh, I didn't think it was reality, but I used to just enjoy the movie for the silly fun it is rather than picking apart all the classroom scenes. It is a sad state of affairs around here, I tell you.

Ms. Val said...

Great job on the paper, Christopher. Outshadowing the competition is always fun, too.

Your instructor must be a tough grader if you got a B+. I happen to think you have the best diction of anyone I know.

ChristopherM said...

Thanks Val...a B+ in law school is like an A in the real world. I only know of one person who got an A, and most folks I've talked to got Cs. I also know what I did that dropped me to a B+, so I'll have an A next time!

Cooper said...

Congratulations!

I turn in my re-write of my short memo in exactly 15 minutes. Wish me luck...