General Background

Mine is a generation of slackers. In our mid-twenties and early thirties, most of us still live with our parents. We are college educated and some of us even have jobs, that we change on a regular basis. We try to find ourselves and rely on the safety net that living with parents provides. We can make mistakes and take risks that would otherwise be disasterous. Mostly though, we want to be happy, and feel independent enough not to want to escape from the nest. To relax and hang out is our aspiration.

The people you meet in law school are entirely different creatures.

Career and money oriented, they prefer hard work to sleep. Law students, with the exception of outcasts like me, are generic. They are all the same person with slightly different attributes.

Everyone you meet in law school will be one of these people:

the Jewish American Princesses, their hair almost always in a pony tail. Every day in class one of them raises her hands to exclaming about "the floodgates of litigation" or some "slippery slope" or other.

the other Jewish girls, tall, with curly hair and Julia Roberts style big mouths. They don't speak in class. But once in the hall, they become Jewish American Princesses.

the asian girls, also with pony tails, but with glasses. When called on, they whisper into their laptops.

the other asian girls--Jewish American Princesses, but with Asian facial features.

the blond Jewish American Princesses, but Irish or Italian, possibly German. But with no other distinction. I believe they're called WASPS.

the WASPS of both genders, but with black skin, like Barrack Obama or Colin Powell, or dark skin like Greg Geraldo.

the male WASPS with Asian features. (I once mistook one for another, referring to George as David. It was my first week of school. There was some embarassment on my part.)

the yarmulke and glasses wearing fat Jewish guys. There's always something off with their faces. Some of them have indented potato-looking heads.

the other yarmulke and glasses wearing Jewish guys, always in a suit or at least dark business casual attire.

the Jewish guys from Eastern Europe who don't wear yarmulkes, and speak Russian really loud while blocking the stairs.

the standard cum laude Ivy Leaguer poloshirt wearers, who, like the Princesses, must stop something from falling down the slipery slope and are obsessed with unburdening the courts, but unlike the Princesses, call out while the professor's back is turned.

the old woman who raises her hand and then talks for ten minutes on a series of irrelevant topics before they're politely asked to shut up. They have a male version, usually with glasses and curly hair, who are always concerned about freedom of speech being taken too far, even in contracts class.

the attempted rebel, usually dressed in a Che shirt, a Soviet hockey jersey, or some similar left wing nostalgia wear.

As law schools, in addition to their quota of blacks and hispanics, also have a gay and lesbian quota, the openly homosexual portion of the student body is scattered inconspicuously throughout the WASP contingent.

One more thing to add before I go; all of the above love baseball and will talk about it every chance they get. During baseball season, which is probably 3/4 of the year, everyone's laptop is on ESPN or MLB.com.

This has been a general background blog. More specific entries will follow about why I should have dropped out of law school. Till then, adieu.