The Law School Relationship Post

I flew solo into law school, but many of my classmates didn't. I guess we (or most of us) are at that age where it's just not common to go any lengthy period of time without, at the very least, casually dating.

Consequently, much of the fun of the first few months of law school centered around speculating over who among the still-single crowd would pair up. Maybe it's still early, but after being here for a semester and change, the truth is that law school has produced precious few actual couples. In fact, there are only two or three items that I know of. And none of them, as far as I know, are reflected on the individuals' respective Facebook pages (a crucial barometer of any relationship, of course.)

What law school has done far more proficiently, it seems, is split people apart. Of those who came into law school in some sort of long-term relationship, the results are all over the place. A healthy portion are managing fine, and I admire them enormously. To balance the sizable law school workload, on top of a social life, on top of everything else being a law student entails, on top of a relationship, is no small feat.

But for every success story, there seems to be several failures. Just about everyone in my immediate circle of friends who had come into law school in a relationship are now either single, "taking a break," or hanging on by a thread. It's a bit disheartening to watch.

As for myself, I haven't met anyone here yet, and I don't see it happening in the near future. Maybe it's better that way. Dating within law school seems, at best, to be an endeavor fraught with potential pitfalls. The instant any inkling of a romance begins to leak out, you will become the talk of the town. You will endure endless scrutiny from your peers, whispers in the hallways and covert stares, whether it be from well-wishers who secretly want to believe that a law school relationship can blossom, or from those cynics who observe with a morbid curiosity and take silent bets on how long your relationship can last before the stresses and realities of law school tear you two apart.

Of course, meeting someone itself is a challenge. Unless you're both huge law-dorks, law school provides precious little material with which one can kindle a romance. For one, the unkempt hair, unshaved beards, sweatpants, and haggard faces that most students begin sporting when times get rough probably isn't the fastest way to a guy or gal's heart. And I don't imagine an afternoon spent poring over the Glannon Guide to Civil Procedure, discussing res judicata and hammering out the intricacies of class action regulations, is how everyone imagines they'll meet their future husband or wife. At least, it's not how I imagined it, although I may have had a sinking feeling that it was just what I had signed up for as I sent in my seat deposit to Columbia.

But hey, I've heard that quite a few people end up meeting their future spouse in law school. So maybe there is something about the environment that acts as some sort of strange aphodesiac. Or, more probably, everyone is just so desperate by the end of it all that they latch onto the first person they can. Who knows? I still have a couple years to find out.