not quite finished

Law school dribbles out its endings. Someday I'll graduate, but rather than being "Done!" I will be "Done, except for the bar review classes which start on Monday and oh by the way you don't get your bar results for six months after you take the test. But, ha ha ha, you can graduate today anyhow."

Not as satisfying as a regular graduation, I think.

Right now I'm working on my law review write-on submission. Even though 1L year finals are over, law school isn't over for another few days. Dribble, dribble.

Law review is a peculiar law school tradition. Each school produces a series of scholarly journals which are run and managed by law students. It is considered a prestigious, resume-building activity while simultaneously it is considered by many to be excruciatingly boring work. A 1L can "make review" by either grading on (being one of the top students in the class), writing on (writing one of the top papers) or a mix of both (not quite the best paper, not quite the top grades, but together a strong candidate).

Perhaps I'm naïve, but I think I'd like it. My biggest frustration with Moot Court was the paternalistic legal sandbox the entire affair took place in. We weren't allowed to move beyond the strict confines of what my Moot Court professor considered appropriate. In law review, the form of the citations is strict (and admittedly a huge amount of work is checking on these citations), but the topics, the papers we read and work on, are wide-ranging and not subject to the same artificial intellectual barriers.

We'll see. Before I can make that assessment I have to make review. Before I can make review, I have to finish this paper. Before I can finish this paper, I have to start it.