North Maple Rag

It was drinking and nostalgia and anticipation for casebook-free summers all wrapped in one. It was fun. And, I only had to pay for one of my drinks all evening, so that was a success. Also, I realized that the best law school decision I've made so far was the one to branch out this semester and have fun. Over the course of the semester, I found out that I like a lot of my classmates and that alone makes the thought of coming back here in August entirely bearable.

Amazingly enough, the having fun thing hasn't hampered my learning. My grades may not reflect it, but I've learned so much more this semester than I did last fall. That's a good feeling. I can't even begin to predict my grades, but I feel like the substantive knowledge I'm taking out of this semester is a whole lot more, well, substantive than last semester.

Also, in it's own way, New York has become my home. This is, for the next two years, the place I return to. Some of my classmates are fortunate enough to be able to return to their real hometowns for the summer. That's not the case for me; I realized recently that I really can't go back to any of my previous homes. Sure, my parents still live in my hometown, but visiting them is just that, a visit. Most of my college friends have left our college town to scatter throughout the country (and world). DC's great, but the things and people I loved most aren't there anymore. Long story short, I've been feeling a bit homeless. It's reassuring to know that I can feel good about coming back to New York. Plus, next year I'm living far above the honking horns and screaming drunk people. Woo hoo! Law school's not so bad.

Oh, and as a sidenote, my final final was fine. I wrote a lot. The last question was about Medicare and due process, and that made me unreasonably happy. Thanks to my Civil Procedure professor, I could write about due process for days and thanks to my former job, I have written about Medicare policy for days (years, actually). So, I think I did pretty okay on that question. The others? Who cares? I'm going home on Saturday and that's all that's important.