Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Let's Catch You Up and Bring Some Fun To This Environment

I think it is time to catch everyone up on some occurrences here at school. About a month and a half ago my Contract professor offered to have lunch with small groups of students from his class over a few week period of time. A couple of my friends and I signed up for a Friday lunch and heard rumors it was going to be a little awkward, so some of them thought of questions to keep the conversation going while we ate lunch. I wasn't too worried about it so I didn't think of any questions. That was a mistake because it was an awkward experience and I didn't say a word through the entire lunch because I wasn't asking any questions. I guess I was under the impression that a conversation with a law professor and a 1L student would just flow. Who am I kidding? It is like trying to get 50Cent to sit down with Oprah...there just isn't a lot of common ground for them to talk about. Among one of the awkward silences, the professor asks, "What are some of the complaints about law school right now?" And wouldn't you know it, one of my good friends speaks up, "Walter is a bit upset that you never call on him". Suddenly another friend says, "ya, he was mentioning how you call on everyone around him, but never pick him". This little manuever is what I like to call being thrown under the bus. Everyone thought the professor would laugh it off and that would be it, but the professor had other things in mind. He later asked if we did anything for fun and mentioned we needed to start doing things for fun as a stress releiver. He would then look at me and say, "except you, you need to be studying contracts". As the lunch was ending, he told everyone to have a good weekend, and once again he looked at me and said, "except you, you need to be studying contracts". My friends apologized to me for getting attention drawn to me. Lets just say I didn't mind having a heads up of getting called on, but it was fun to give my friends a hard time and make them think I was pissed at them.
The following Monday, the professor came into the room and looked at me and gave me a smirk and a head nod. I thought it was my time and I had over prepared for the class. He never called on me that day and actually gave me another head nod when I was leaving the classroom. I have been on edge for at least a month and half in that class. I even made up a theory in my mind for that class. If I wore a jacket that had a logo for the school on it, he wasn't going to call on me because of my school spirit. Two days ago I wore a hoodie that had the school logo on it, but he started calling on people right close to me, so I thought it was the jacket keeping me safe, so I wore it to class today. This is where the story takes another twist.
I am walking in the halls this morning and I see my professor. He stops me and asks me how to pronounce my last name. He tried, but it was wrong, and instead of making a joke or telling him a fake name to get a rise out of him, I corrected him. He then said, "I guess this isn't a good sign for you". I told him I knew how contract class was going to go today. I do appreciate a heads up if I am going to get called on, but I really hate talking in class, which is the opposite how law school is. The students do all the talking. So a couple of my friends and I started making wagers for sodas with other students saying, "I bet Walter gets called on in class today". We had a couple takers. At the end of class we came clean with them...I like to have fun, but I am not gonna cheat people.
I was so nervous I decided instead of waiting for him to call on me I would answer one of his open questions. So I took the game to him. I played his game on my terms. It turned out to be ok, but these experiences help make law school a lot of fun (believe it or not, all this studying can be a great experience).

1 comment:

Sodermoto said...

Can you explain the name of your blog to me? Some of us just work with lawyers and don't speak their speak! ;)