I am sitting here among 50 other students. Many of them are wearing business casual clothes, and many have perfectly groomed hair. Some have on t-shirts and jeans. Probably none of them are covered in bruises, but I am. As I look down at my hands, I see 7 recent cuts. None are bad, they’re all surface scratches, but all bled. Both of my legs, from the very top of my hips all the way down to the top of my feet, are spotted with dark bruises. My arms are sore, and my left hip and butt cheek are tender.

No, I’m not abused. I climb in the rafters of my warehouse. I run and jump. I hoop and I spin fire, and play with staffs (staves, but I hate that word).

I wonder sometimes how I’m ever going to deal with being in such a mainstream profession, because I hope to never NOT have bruises like this. I hope to always do fun stuff that’s a little dangerous and a whole lot of crazy.

As a side note, even the “freaks” in this school are starting to become mainstream. This makes me sad.

My property professor said to our class, after hearing that none of us possessed, much less read, the syllabus for this semester, “When you all began last semester, you had the syllabus memorized. Oh how quickly you become jaded!”

The first day of school, first semester, I showed up around an hour early, and went to my class nearly 30 minutes early. The class was already mostly full of anxious 1Ls.

The first day of school, second semester, I barely made it. I rolled in at 3 minutes ’till, and I was far from the last to enter the room. Several people skipped the first day entirely.

First semester, I would skip class before going without full briefs of every single word in the required reading for that class. This semester, I have briefed three cases total, out of approximately 15 read so far.

I am not necessarily proud of the fact that I’m not working as hard. I’m working hard in other, more efficient ways though, and I’m happy to know more about what I’m doing. I know what things to spend time on, and which things are less important.

I was on call today in Torts. I hadn’t really read the material like I should have, and I hadn’t briefed it at all. I had (still have, at the moment) a fever and a cold, and had really considered skipping the class entirely. And I did fine. I didn’t even get nervous like I have in the past. I’m getting the hang of this stuff.