I am doing tonight what I've often done over the past four years -- skipping class to manage a crisis in some other area of my professional life, sitting in the JMLS library, alternately managing my crisis and wasting my time on the internet.

The only difference is tonight is the last time.

This was the starting point of the chapter.

Four years ago, I did something truly crazy and stupid. I decided to take a full-time job and enroll in law school as a part-time night student. What was I thinking? At that point in my life, I was barely motivated enough to drag myself to my fluffy electronic music and web journalism classes at Northwestern. I thought joiners were schmucks, and my primary extracurricular activity involved the 1800 Club and shots of whiskey.

In a few weeks, I will graduate from JMLS cum laude -- maybe even magna cum laude if things shake out right -- and still gainfully employed. I won't lie and say it was a smooth ride. It was often a downright embarassing one -- pock marked with mood swings, frantic caffeine binges, weeks where I couldn't be bothered to try, and once even getting kicked out of class (up yrs Bernabe!)

But the following things are absolutely true and cannot be taken away from me:

- I once got an A- on an exam on which all I wrote for one 20-point essay question was "I don't think he preserved the issue for appeal."
- I have built inspiring, life-affirming relationships with fellow students and several professors
- I have learned a mind-boggling volume of jargon
- I have soldiered through some of the worst hangovers known to man and called into work sick only one time (not for a hangover, but for actual sickness) in four years
- I have discovered within myself large and renewable resivoirs of energy, motivation and passion


I've always been prone to nostalgia. But tonight, even more than other times in my life, I am very sad to say this good bye.