The Dirt Field

“In class I often have to resist the urge to find a high heel and put it through my eye in hopes of ending the lecture/discussion.”

“I’ve decided that if I leap to my death from the fourth floor of the library, I am going to land on the display case full of rare books. That will show them. And anyway, style points count.”

“Sitting through that class is like having a screwdriver shoved up your ass.”

“Don’t worry, it gets better…. ok I lie, it doesn’t.”

“This is the 33rd time today I’ve thought about quitting.”

“GRRR I swear every time I get a Torts assignment back I think about saying “f*** it I’m done!” Grr. I’ve thought about dropping out NO LESS than 18 times today.”

“I graduate in December and I have to tell myself 17 times a day…’You can’t take the bar without a degree, You can’t take the bar without a degree.'”

“It’s my last year but it seems that the closer I get to graduating, the more I think about dropping out! I hate this s***!”

“If I won I’d buy a plane to fly with a banner that said, ‘Fuck you Brandeis’ and fly it around the law school all day.”

“10 times…shit, I’ve thought about it at least 15 times…and it’s only 12:45.”

“I didn’t drop out…. but I hate everything about it.”

“It’s sad when the pain of law school hits T.V. Tonight my friend was watching Grey’s Anatomy and one of the patients failed the bar and set herself on fire. Is that what I get to look forward to after I suffer through this first year hell?”

“Page 4 of Contracts, day 2 of Orientation. That’s the exact moment I decided to withdraw from law school, and it was absolutely TERRIFYING. You wouldn’t believe how many lawyers have told me since that they wish they had done the same.”

“One of the guys in my section the other day observed that our library is only one story high and that even if we wanted to, we wouldn’t kill ourselves when we jumped off, just break our leg or something and still have to take the exams. That made us all even more depressed.”

“If I were a 1L or 2L I would walk out of class right now and go to grad school for something fun. There is no way I would finish.”

“I can’t imagine being a 1L… or a 2L for that matter. If I were, by god I would QUIT. All you first and second years ought to quit…yeah, that’s what I would do. Being a 3L, I’m just too far along and cannot justify it.”

“And I can’t agree more that attending law school is like sticking a rusty fork in your eye, maybe both of your eyes. 6 more months….”

“I remember before law school when I was a happy person and wasn’t full of bitterness and regret towards everyone and everything. Oh, and when I actually trusted people and didn’t question everything they did and said. I also remember when my brain wasn’t so full of unnecessary bullshit, so that I could actually remember things, like where I put my car keys or what I did last week.”

“Ahh…Remember before law school when television seemed more colorful, sex wasn’t too time consuming, you put milk on cereal instead of tears, acute paranoia wasn’t nearly as much of a problem, spring time and the holiday season were less fear-inducing, that thing on your neck wasn’t there, and you didn’t know what voir dire meant and you were totally okay with that….those were the days.”

“I am currently a member of 4 law school related suicide pacts.”

“See, what I love about law school is the curve- it validates your feeling of failure. You not only know that you suck, but you suck more than just about everyone else. Um, flip side. You are top 10% in sucking. Interesting.”

“I am convinced anyone who enjoys law school has no soul and needs serious spiritual intervention.”

“I’m from Britain and chose to do a JD in the US. I spent the first semester thinking Americans were just weird, over-achieving, aggressively anal people. And then I found fellow Americans who also felt that law school was downright dehumanizing. Good to know that we’re all in it together.”

“As a 3L, I actually fantasize about dropping out of law school each day just for a moment of dreamy pleasure… these are no longer brought about by stress and tension… more so by boredom, I think.”

“In a few years from now, I will probably be daydreaming about how much better my life would be if I had dropped out of law school after my first 1L semester.”

“I thought about jumping out the window about 3 times during contracts this morning. Not to mention that everyone is a freak during finals. Is it too early for everyone to start being really weird? I thought about getting a job at Target, seriously. They have good benefits.”

“I would also like to add that alcohol has been one of the few things in life preventing my actual dropping out of law school. Funny, how a great % of attorneys are alcoholics.”

“When I was getting rejection letters from most of the law schools I applied to, a buddy of mine who was currently a 3rd year said. ‘Not getting in may be the best thing that ever happens to you; many people who have been through law school wouldn’t wish it upon his/her worst enemy.’ I thought he was trying to console me….it took about a month of 1st year to realize the truth of that statement.”

“I think about dropping out on average 10 times a day, until I joined a journal. Now, on average I spend about 10 minutes a day not thinking about dropping out and/or praying to be hit by a bus. But really, happiness was just a distraction in my life.”

“I went to University of Detroit for my first year of law school, and my bud and I after class, while walking to our filing cabinet-type apartment would fantasize about some stray bullet hitting us so we could get out of law school without feeling guilty about quitting. No joke.”

“There was a moment today when I almost stepped out into on coming traffic just to avoid doing my open memo.”

“Sometimes, EU Law makes me want to lose the will to live.”

“It’s Saturday night. I have to go back to law school in the morning. I have an appellate brief due at 3 on Monday that I have not started. I’m seriously contemplating running my car into a ditch some where on I-57 so I don’t have to go back. God, I hate this.”

“Open memo in Torts is due on Monday, and I haven’t written a single damn thing. Every day I find myself less and less motivated to do anything, and yet I wanted to go to law school since I was about 14? My dream is really a nightmare… awesome!”

“So who has seriously considered staying home and never returning to law school after Thanksgiving break?”

“You know how they all say it gets better the second year? They all lied. Bastards.”

“I feel like the guy from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade who drank from the wrong cup: ‘He chose…poorly.’”

“I naively went into law thinking that you can help people by being a lawyer, now I realize that it is such an every man for himself profession.”

“I’m hoping to get some sort of fatal turkey poisoning tomorrow because I don’t feel like writing my motion paper…or take finals…or go to school next semester…or finish the next 2.5 years of law school.”

“I just keep telling myself that something good is going to happen sooner or later…like a bolt of lightning on my way to the parking lot, or a speeding bus that doesn’t see me crossing the street.”

[Excerpts taken from the wall of the group “I’ve Thought About Dropping Out Of Law School At Least Ten Times Today” on Facebook.com.]