...Stop Being Polite, and Start Getting Real

I know, it’s tired and played out. Two posts in two days on the same topic. I’m whining. But it’s kind of a big deal. If you’ll grant me kindergarten, this is my twentieth spring break. Twenty springs. Twenty breaks. Twenty weeks of lukewarm temperatures and rain, or, if I was lucky, an escape somewhere hot or adventurous. That’s almost half a year of this. Five months, at least. And now, the end.

On the other hand, one of twenty isn’t much of which to speak. Yet, as it’s my last, the break precedes only shortly the impending thrust that will force me headlong into the “real world” – that scary place where all things financial are truncated to abbreviations (IRA, 401k, FICA, etc.), where student discounts and the appurtenant treatment don’t apply, and where the address on your license becomes yours alone, not a constant if latent reminder of your childhood home and the stability of your parents. Oddly (thankfully), none of this makes me nervous. A little responsibility never hurt anyone. Indeed, much of me looks forward to casting off the “student” label and the claustrophobic binding it necessarily imposes. It’s been a long time coming.

Nonetheless, I hesitate and even push back a little. I like school. I’m good at it. It’s what I do. Why fix what ain’t broke?

Ok, I’ll stop now. No more sulking. No more last this and that nor counting all that matters. I should be enjoying myself, not thinking about school on my last free week in March. And I would be, if only it weren’t forty degrees and pouring rain.

Enumerated Nostalgia

There’s something about impending “ends” that lends itself to list-making. I made all sorts of lists the last few weeks I spent in Leuven, and I once again find myself doing the same as law school comes to a close along with my formal education. They provide, I think, a convenient means of reminiscing, of looking back, taking stock, and appreciating the sum of a particular experience. Of course, it’d be great to have foresight enough to record events at the beginning of adventures, but who ever knows what’s worth remembering before the fact?

After seven years in The Corn, there’s a lot I won’t miss when I leave. But there’s also a lot I will. After all, I’ve traipsed about those streets for nearly a third of my life. There’s no doubt I grew up there, and when I drive away for the last time in May, I’ll leave more than just a college town and a few friends behind. In the next few weeks, I’m sure I’ll find myself listing all that won’t come with me wherever I go next.

For now, I’ll enjoy my last Spring Break for all it is and was. I’ll no doubt spend considerable time looking back. But to be honest, my eyes are squarely focused on the road ahead. With so much coming up, something tells me I won’t be missing law school very long at all.