BY REBECCA AGULE
In the stress and anxiety that are my 1L year, I am trying to cling to the little things to get through each day. So, now that we are an entire month into the year, in sad attempt to not sound like Oprah, let’s recount…
1. The one (ok, maybe two) times I have read a case, thought I understood it and sat through a class discussion to find I actually wasn’t laboring under a misapprehension.
2. The boys currently playing stickball outside my window. I want it to be 1960 and Brooklyn, but this is pretty close.
3. NESN. NESN. NESN. Whoever invented you, kisses all around.
4. Going on runs to the stadium in the late afternoon. Holy football players. Yeah, it doesn’t take much ’round here.
5. An undefeated UVa football team. So it was Rutgers, UNC, Akron, and Syracuse. The BCS took away strength of schedule, not me. All I know is 4-0 and a number 9 ranking.
6. The magical day I had something to add in class, didn’t have the nerve to say it, watched someone else say it, and realized I would have been right. The anaphylactic shock that followed that, however, wasn’t such a merrymaker.
7. My “homeroom” section. They already all know I am a fool, so it’s lovely not being utterly petrified to speak for a couple of hours a week.
8. Monday Night Football/study sessions. More accurately, “study sessions.” See also Saturday Game Day/study sessions. Soon to be MLB Playoff/study sessions.
9. Figuring out why an utterly ridiculous-sounding note has been included in a casebook. Lord, at this point figuring out just about anything makes it a red letter day.
10. Socializing with friends from undergrad who help me remember who I once was and one day can be again.
11. Knowing that no matter what answer I give in Contracts, it won’t be wrong. Now if I could simply figure out what a contract actually is….
12. My continued hope that, with all the brilliance that has passed through Langdell, education by osmosis might kick in at some point. Maybe if I start napping on the legal encyclopedias.
13. Leaving Professor Miller’s Civ Pro class feeling like I should have paid above and beyond my tuition, that there should be some additional tax to pay for how entertaining it is. And edifying, always edifying.
14. The cop who has now TWICE shown me how to get back to school while lost on a run. Yes, I found the same cop twice. Yes, he remembered me. Yes, he thinks I am lying when I say I go here.
15. Dave.
16. Finding jokes about jurisdiction funny. Actually, no, that depresses me. I might have to lobby for a moratorium on all jokes that we would not have found amusing prior to September 7th.
17. The day I figured out FYL starts at 12:40 and NOT 12:50.
18. NESN is on here somewhere, right?
19. When Black’s simply falls open to the right page. Which should really sadden me, because it means I have looked up the same words often enough to wreak havoc on the spine, and yet cannot commit them to memory to save my life.
20. When the chef at the Hark secretly doubles up my grilled chicken order. I am not quite as grateful as I am toward the inventors of NESN, but it’s up there.
21. The forty-five people who have walked down the Ames 1 hall with the comment, “Do you people watch anything but sports?” And, conversely, knowing I can always watch a game in the comfort of my own lounge. And a Gropius lounge is nothing if not comforting.
22. Putting on the Freshman 15 I avoided in undergrad. Really, that makes me just OH so happy.
23. Returning to the days of Truth or Dare, serving drinks out of trash cans and rolling people’s bedrooms. Who says you can’t go back?
24. The simple happy prospect of being in Boston with the playoffs about to ensue.
25. Reverting to the innocence of a puppy love crush. And then realizing the object of said crush has a backpack on wheels. Wait, I am going back to the stadium. Where did those football players go???
26. Being told daily by sectionmate guy friends that “There are no hot girls in this section.” Really, guys? Thanks. I am going to go get a Snickers and further contribute to number 22.
27. Professor Meltzer pushing back our Criminal Law class start time by almost an hour on Thursdays and Fridays. How do you go about nominating someone for sainthood?
28. Not having to spend a red cent on certain “products” for the next three years. And I will most assuredly be stocking up for the summers.
29. The knowledge that North Hall lounge will be my second home. Given that nothing in this godforsaken town is open after midnight. Not that we walked from one end of Cambridge to the other in search of something. No, not at all.
30. Holding you people hostage every week.
Rebecca Agule is a 1L. She had nothing to do with choosing the photos that accompany her column.