This post is lovingly dedicated to: Amber, Becky, Candace, Courtney, Danielle, Elise, Elizabeth, Kelsi, and Sarah My 1L Alphabet.
Tomorrow marks a milestone for so many wonderful people in my life. They are the 1L's. I remember being where they are as if it were yesterday. I remember what happened the day classes were over. Outlines were gathered, pencils, pens and highlighters of every color imaginable littered carrels and tables of the library at hours "normal" people never see. Whiteboards found themselves covered with all manner of words and equations which amounted to the equivalent of jibberish to the non-law students. RAP became a rule of property law and not a genre of music, and "remainder" became the leftovers of an estate, not a division problem. I remember. I remember every outline being covered in highlighting and pen marks, I remember bringing food and water as if I'd entered into a dangerous place and might not come out for awhile, and I remember what it felt like to know that I had done all that was asked of me, and completed my first semester of law school.
Finishing 1L year was entirely bittersweet for me, for the camaraderie formed in that brutal rite of passage is unlike any other I've ever known, but in the midst of the year none of us want to repeat, I learned one lesson I want all of my precious 1L's to know as they move into the hiding place known as final exams. It amounts to a single phrase: NO PRETENDING ALLOWED.
People will tell you that law school is a brutal place, people are probably right, but if you weren't called to be in this place, you wouldn't be here.
You will, no doubt, come to terms with the reality law school will foster in your altogether precious life. Every law school class contains a few pretenders, a few people who came to law school for some measure of luster and shine. Within each pretender is a false belief that law school will help the pretender hide behind a piece of paper with a bunch of letters on it, an expensive piece of paper, a highly difficult test, and an oath to uphold...that's a lot of work for pretending.
Your work here is not in vain, but this work is not for pretenders.
The general populous hates lawyers. Why? My guess is that most people haven't seen many lawyers who really cared a ton about the people they were fighting for.
This is not to say that good lawyers don't exist, for I know with all that is in me, YOU will be one. This IS to say that if you think you're going to walk through this and do it all so you can drive expensive cars and buy big houses, you should think again.
Over the next two weeks you'll find yourselves in the midst of one of the scariest, if not the scariest academic endeavors you've ever embarked upon, simply because you don't know what to expect.
Take heart and remember that you are more than a conqueror, and decide, from the depths of your heart, to go head to head with the pretenders and naysayers of the world. Be aware that one day, maybe even tomorrow, you won't be that person with the spiffy degree, you'll be the one on your knees asking God "Remind me why I did this again, please?" and you won't be able to deny that some moments, you have no answer to that question, law school is not for pretenders.
On days when you don't remember why you're here, think about what you want to fight for, and put all of your energy into obtaining victory for that cause. Do everything you do with your very best resources, and make sure that your very best is not being hidden by your very timid, your very broken, or your very afraid.
All of us have our things. Our things that make us desire to pretend they aren't there. Trust me, it would make me happy if tomorrow I could pretend the Hot Tamale did not exist, and I could do cartwheels, BUT, where would that get me?
Be who you are. Tomorrow, today will be a mere memory, and we'll never be able to get it back, but what will be here, and beyond any destruction, is what you did with the day you were given.
Never underestimate the power of living an intentional and Christ centered life, one in which pretending has no place.
If you love someone, tell them. If you see a place where change could be made, make it.
If you see a need and can help, do it. Never leave a place the same way you found it. Every place you're in has to change at least slightly by virtue of your very presence, and if your very presence changes a place, you might as well make that change a positive one, right?
I challenge you, stand before the pretenders of your generation and sound a battle cry. Demand from yourselves, your peers, and your posterity, a standard of authentic living which cannot be doubted, even under tense, trying, heartbreaking, and uncertain circumstances. Lift up your head and be assured, you are a child of the Most High, and by virtue of this truth, you need not pretend to be anything more, or anything less than what you are, you are stamped with a certificate that labels you "Authentic", and I pray you would always and forever be the authentic heir and beloved child that you are.
Authentically,
Courtney
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