Dear RJ

Dear RJ,
I have always been a good student. From the gold star on my forehead in preschool until the day I graduated with my BA in political science, I have always been at the top of my class. You can image my shock when I got my grades this semester and I received only average marks. I am embarrassed to admit that one of my grades was even as low as some of the people I used to make fun of when I was in undergrad. How can this be?
First Real Experience As Kolikeh
[Kolikeh: Yiddish. n. (KOL-e-keh) An inept performer; someone not so good at their craft.]

Dear FREAK,
It must seem like only yesterday that you were sitting around a table in a coffee shop thinking that you and all your cool friends could if only everyone would listen. You probably came to law school with visions of you cheekily and easily engaging with your professors and showing your classmates how sharp you are and have always been. I can imagine your disappointment when you found yourself taking weeks worth of notes on mutual assent, consideration, and parole evidence only to find that the girl in sweats two rows back and the guy with the beer gut and a John Deere hat were both easily as smart as you, and understood better than you why a fox hunt hundreds of years ago is important to American Property law. First of all, don’t feel like Tigger cause you aren’t the only one. Every year, hundreds of first year law students experience the very same thing. Your disappointment is understandable. You are no longer the cream of the crop. You’re just the crop. Maybe even the chaff. The important question now, is what will you do about it? Here are some suggestions I have gathered from the Alumnus I have met over the past few years.
From a Litigator: Keep in mind that everyone here is at least as smart as you. While you may have been the brightest star at State U, here you’re now grouped with about 100 people who all got roughly the same GPA and LSAT score. You may feel that there is some great gap between yourself and your classmates but let’s face it, if that were true you’d be attending a different school than a 3rd tier state school in rural Idaho.
From a Professor: Learn to live with your grades. They don’t define you unless you define yourself with them. And if you define yourself by your grades, well, you’re probably an asshole.
From a Judge: Find other ways to validate yourself. Three years from now this will all be over. If your self worth and self esteem have been largely based on your law school achievements you’ll find yourself in a sad, sad state. While you got an A in Business Associations people after you graduate will still prefer the company of the person who got a C+ – because he or she is not a stuffy prick.
Learn to live with your C. Embrace it and move on. You’ll be a better person for it.

Dear RJ,
I am nervous about sharing a hotel room with a classmate on the bankruptcy moot court trip to NYC because he has publicly said I was pretty. Should I be concerned about what people will think, or just embrace my friend and make clear that I don’t feel that way about him?
Torn Regarding New Travel

Dear TRENT
I got nothing. Really. I don’t know what to tell you. I wouldn’t want to share a room with him, and he thinks I am fat, old and ugly. I think you can buy pepper spray in Union Square.

Dear RJ
What the hell was Josh thinking? How can he not think that articles was a personal attack? How was that funny? What’s his problem? I could write an editorial about how several people at this school, faculty, staff, and students irritate the shit out of me, but I don’t.
Anonymous

Dear Anonymous
Josh is like that guy who teaches the foreign kid to play poker. His game, his rules, and sometimes a hand of all red cards is just a winner. I know that Josh has a blog, but none of his friends read it, so this was his best way to be heard since his roommate has been telling him to quit whining.

Dear RJ
Do we actually go to law school? I am just curious because I thought law school was about confrontation, differing opinions, advocacy for a position, and challenging ones perspective. I also thought part of learning about the law was debating over terms like “personal attacks” or concepts like proper forums.
I also thought we, as law students, enjoyed concepts like freedom of the press or freedom of speech.
See, I am confused because many of the responses to my article from last issue brought vehemence and name calling from many anonymous posters.
Just the Editor

Dear JTE
No, Josh. You are operating from several mistaken premises. Law school isn’t about any of those things. Law school is about gossip, innuendo, scandal, cliquishness, snide attacks (which is what Inter Alia is SUPPOSED to be about), and crushing your idealistic dreams of the law as a professional fraternity. Most law students DO enjoy those things as CONCEPTS. The fact is, most of America is only for freedom of speech that they agree with. As for freedom of the Press, well, that would imply that this rag qualifies as Press, and no publication that would regularly let me rant and make snide attacks counts as a newspaper. Also, just because most of us don’t think of Inter Alia as an actual news source, that doesn’t meant we think it should be your blog either