The first was the annual 1L moot court competition. Roughly 140 1Ls--three-fourths of our class--argued cases before a mock appellate court in head-to-head competition. This gave us all something to talk about besides jobs and classes, although we were mostly limited to discussing how much fun we were having was since we couldn't talk about the case materials. More importantly, though, Your Mom made it to the semi-finals. Top 4 out of 140 wannabe lawyers and ex-"Webster's Dictionary defines . . . "-high-school-speech-and-debaters is pretty damn good. Me, Sultan, and Pier 39 cheered her all the way, spurred on by the fact that she had seriously considered dropping out of law school in the weeks before the competition. I think her self esteem lay at the bottom of the ocean after a discouraging talk with a professor and the disappointment of fall grades, so we were all happy she found a niche for herself. And by rallying around her I felt more invigorated and connected to my friends than I had for months.
The second thing is cookies. Insomnia Cookies. IC is a bakery that sells fresh cookies at two in the morning, kept warm and chewy in the oven before serving. It is perfectly adapted to the college town biome. The 13th-century Sufi poet Rumi wrote about IC when he said, "He who tastes not, knows not." I cannot fully communicate to you how good these cookies are. I can only point and make noises, like a gagged captive showing the police where his kidnapper hid the bodies. These cookies are murderous.
IC is a new business. I didn't know they existed until Negative Feedback told me about them sometime in April. He had been there eight times in the previous week. Once I tried it I knew why. I also knew I couldn't keep IC to myself, so I brought my friends there one night promising that the cookies would "materially improve their quality of life." They were skeptical, but here's how the first outing went:
Sultan (after taking one bite): I feel... closer to God.
Your Mom: I feel like I've sinned.
Pier 39: How is this possible?
We flagged down another friend who happened to be passing by. This friend--I'll call him Benadryl--ate a cookie, went back up to the counter, and asked the cashier, "Do you put heroin in these?"
Just like that, Insomnia Cookies became our social locus. "Hey Your Mom, what are you doing tonight?" "I was thinking cookies, then your mom." "Cool let's meet up at 9." Of course it was not all about the food. We wanted company more than cookies. But cookies were a convenient and delicious excuse to hang out. So every day we stumbled into IC like polar bears driven to human settlements by post-hibernation hunger. And like polar bears we ate a lot.
I don't want to give the impression that all law students are alienated and starved for human contact. It probably won't be like that next spring, when the pressure of getting good grades and finding a job will have lifted. Still I wonder what would have happened if not for moot court and IC. I don't think it's inevitable that my friends and I would have found another excuse to reconnect. I am not good at pursuing my own happiness. Throughout college I longed to meet more people but couldn't bring myself to go out without an acceptable reason or excuse (plus it didn't help that I don't drink). I was socially crippled and needed a crutch, and being mostly crutchless I spent many weekends sitting alone in my room. And that's more or less where I was after winter break this year, despite my relatively outgoing attitude at the start of fall.
Nor, I suspect, may my classmates be much better at finding happiness: lawyers, or at least lawyers at big law firms, generally work long hours, lack a social life or significant family time before being promoted, and find little satisfaction in their jobs. But I'm getting ahead of myself. My first year ended on a high note and so should this post.
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