End of an Era

This morning, I decided to skip my 8:30 class.  I don't feel as though I particularly benefit from going to that class.  It is not taught using the socratic method, so there is no pressure that I am going to get called on.  The professor also has a tendency to pontificate endlessly (with the help of a couple of students) about sample problems, and then not really give us the answer.  When I woke up this morning, I was ridiculously sleepy, so I decided to skip class and go back to sleep.  When I woke up a couple of hours later, it occurred to me that I had just skipped the last class of my 20-year academic career.  Oops.

The full impact of this information hasn't hit me yet.  I still have office hours tomorrow, and I still have a hearing next Friday, so it doesn't feel like I am "finished" with school in any way.  I also have a final in the class that I skipped,  for which I will likely spend the entire weekend studying.  I hope to work on the final (it's a take home) on Monday & Tuesday and turn it in on Wed. morning.  Even then, I don't know that it will really hit me that I am done. Maybe because I am not.

I still have to study until the last week of July for the bar exam, and I will be attending the BarBri class from 9-1 on M-F from May 24 until the bar exam.   Even after the dreaded bar exam is behind me, I will be attending CLE (continuing legal education) classes every year until I retire (I think?).  Also, one of the things that I love about the legal profession, is that you never really stop learning.  The law is constantly evolving and changing, and lawyers are constantly having to learn about those changes.

With that being said, today is still significant.  I will never have to attend a class that I am paying tuition to take.  I won't have "homework" assignments anymore, and, although I don't really know the dynamics of CLEs, I doubt that I will be "on call" by a professor ever again.  That is a relief!  Homework assignments get particularly frustrating the longer you are in school.  It becomes infuriating to spend so much time on assignments that are "simulations," especially when you have already done the real thing.

So, whether I feel "different" or not, today is the end of an era.  From this day forward, every class that I take (the BarBri class, in particular) has a direct relation to my real-world career.  I no longer have summers "off."  I will never again have a three-week vacation during the holiday season.  I can't just "wing it" with my job like I could in classes.  No more three-day weekends every week because I could avoid taking Friday classes.  No more day-drinking in the middle of the week just because it is sunny and warm outside.  Where has the time gone?

I have to say, that while I will miss the "ease" that accompanies life as a student, I am glad that I will finally enter the professional world and leave the student lifestyle behind.  I look forward to making money instead of borrowing huge amounts of it to finance my education.  I am excited to be making a difference and for my work to really mean something.

Peace out, WVU. It's been real. Adios Morgantown, it's been a great 7 years.  Hello, Charleston & AGT, let's do this.