87. To Great Friends

"It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it." 

~Anonymous

It's that time of year. That time when appearances don't matter and coffee should be administered intravenously. There's even a whole separate "tumblr" for it, so you know that means it's bad (see http://wheninlawschool.tumblr.com/). It's that time when law students brave the toxic fumes of the library, become delirious from lack of sunlight, and collectively endure the suckitude that is finals. Finals have this curious, innate ability to suck all remaining joy and happiness from your soul, leaving you eating cake for dinner and laughing hysterically at buzzfeed articles that aren't really all that funny. Finals are also like the test of a good marriage. People who sequester themselves, turn into self-engrossed hermit crabs, and refuse to communicate or share notes? Bad friends and bad long-term partners. People who embrace the suck with you, post stupid YouTube videos to your Facebook account to make you laugh, and drag you out for a beer after you've spent well over 12 hours staring at a computer screen? Good friends and great life-long partners.

People matter. Period. Other things come and go. People who matter don't. If there's one things this rather painful experience continues to remind me, it's that perspective is key. It's just work, and they're just exams (really, really hard exams given by cruel, Satan-esque professors, but, at the end of the day, just exams). No one is getting shot at and no one's life is going to change as the result of one crappy exam grade. I'd like to think I'm a decent example of that - I don't have the best grades in my class, and I don't spend every free moment of my life studying, but I do have some pretty great friends who would abandon studying for exams in a second if I needed their help. It's these people I've tried to go out of my way to spend as much time with as possible during this rather miserable time before I have to leave for Afghanistan in a couple of weeks. This is my way of saying thank you to those people. Thank you for keeping me grounded in reality and for pushing me to keep at it while reminding me to laugh along the way. Honestly, this ain't shit, people. It's just school. The hard stuff is yet to come. And for me, at least, the hardest thing I've ever had to do has already happened - I live with it every day. We'll get through this, just like everything else, and when all the serious stuff is over and done with, we'll do some serious celebrating. So cheers to another week of suck - and to the wonderful people who will help to get me through it.