The best. . .

The best thing about going out to dinner with someone who is not in law school is that you realize how much you have learned. While you are in law school, how much you have learned is always compared with how much everyone else has learned, and no matter where you stand on that scale, you professors are always there to make sure you pale against them (not that they rub it in, but they just can't help being able to tick of the 9 elements of fraud as if they were telling you what groceries they need to pick up on the way home.) When you are out with your non- law school friends, even those that know a little bit about the law like my friend who I had dinner with tonight who reads Supreme Court slip opinions for fun, you begin to realize just how much you have absorbed over the year. I also notice this when I listen to NPR in the morning, which has been as essential part of my morning routine along with my cup of coffee for as long as I can remember. I begin to hear and understand concepts that I never picked up on before, like when the court grants certiorari or even things as simple as discussions about phases of a trial, described in Nina Totenburg’s firm but welcoming voice. It is good to get this perspective when you feel like you don't know anything, because if there is any way to describe One-L year, it is that you are constantly feeling like you don't know anything, because you are constantly learning new things. Just when you feel like you got a concept down, you move on to something new, and it doesn't really stop all year. It is good to always be learning, but sometimes it is nice to know that you actually have learned. For that, talking with another One-L just won't do. You got to go to an outside source.