So, what I failed to mention in my last post, or, rather, failed to fully flesh out for all of y'all is the phenomenon of "lawcest." Now lawcest is exactly what it sounds like: dating and/or hooking up with another law student; thus, law school incest = lawcest. There are gradations according to the severity of the offense. They are as follows:
The worst offenders -
Serial law school daters. These are the people who either have dated every single other single person in your small section, or even the law school at large. There's at least one in every law school. No exceptions. If you can't think of anyone, and you're single, it might be you. These people were likely the type of person who had gigantic public breakups in high school. They may still carry on this less than proud tradition. Alternatively, people who conduct less-than-subtle trysts with fellow law students. These may not rise quite to the level of a "relationship," and therefore do not qualify them as "serial daters," but that doesn't make them any less bad. They get sloppy at events and may have made out with every eligible person in their small section (during the first year) or even the whole law school (after the first year).
Now, I'm not going to make excuses here, but to a certain extent, if you're single and disinclined to do online dating, get set up, and/or get repeatedly hit on in bars, this is unavoidable at a certain point. We get it, but it doesn't mean we have to like it.
Less bad -
Sloppy hook ups. Bound to happen sooner or later. There will be some event or you'll be out after exams and blowing off some steam (seriously, the world will just seem brighter after exams), and inevitably you will decide that the world is far less terrible than you'd imagined during your grueling hours in the lawbrary. In the blink of an eye, you'll go from casually conversing with that sort-of attractive classmate to either a full-on make out session (high school style), or you'll be walking out the door hand in hand. It's entirely possible that no one will notice. Sometimes this happens when the entire room is too schlitzed to know the difference. The rule of thumb, however, is that someone will always notice. You'll do the walk of shame the next day (well, one of you will), and it will either gradually evolve into dating (like an adult!), or there will be a few more sloppy hook ups with the same person, or that will be that and you'll both move on.
If you're not one of the ones taking part in any sloppy hook ups during law school, it will be profoundly irritating to you that people do this in public. When you see one in progress you will immediately question all of your life choices, and then walk your tired butt home. In the immortal words of Danny Glover, you will tell yourself that "I'm getting too old for this shit." The embarrassment will fade, and you will either re-offend or you'll conduct yourself respectably.
NOTE: Less bad gets IMMEDIATELY upgraded to "the worst" if you have loud fights, disrupt traveling teams or clinics of any type, or if you leave a trail of trampled colleagues' feelings along the way.
Least bad -
Law school couple. These are the ones that find each other at some point during the 3 years in which you are all roped together like a herd of cattle in a single building for incalculable hours a week. They will either handle this maturely or immaturely. The mature ones start seeing each other on the DL and it slowly evolves to a point where people suddenly realize that they're together. There's also the mature varietal that crops up over night - friends since nearly the beginning and then suddenly they take the plunge and are revoltingly happy. There's also the couples that meet day 1 and stick it out for all three years. These are likely to end up in long-term relationships. So long as they're not all over each other in the hallways/generally in public, it's perfectly acceptable. All relationships have their ups and downs, so, as long as it's not being publicized to the entire school in a truly stomach turning manner, you're a-ok. (I really can't be too judgy here, I'm guilty.)
The immature couples are on par with "sloppy hook ups." They will disrupt things, strangers will know too many details about their personal lives, and their eventual break up will be a peace-shattering, polarizing event. Basically, too much feelings, and gross, and do not want.
The best -
You've heard the myth that they exist, and indeed they do! Law students in healthy, functional relationships with non-law school people. These usually result in marriage (if not already married entering law school). I applaud them. They are functional adults. Many of them bring their wonderful spouses to hang with the law students. Some have awesome children. Some have pets that function as children. These people win. All the win. This, however, is not lawcest. Unless you have two law students that are married to each other. In which case, holy crap you're not human.
I've been meaning to post this for at least a week, but I had many things to attend to. Sorry loves!
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