Singing Loudly

It's my third year of law school and I realize that I'm a different person than I was before I entered law school. The first year all the professors mentioned to us that we would never be the same people again. We would look at things differently. At a party you'd see the keg hanging off the ceiling and say "Holy shit that's a tort waiting to happen...", instead of "Holy shit I want to drink the entire thing."

That hasn't happened to me. I don't notice torts waiting to happen. I don't see contracts and say "that's poorly written." I don't think about whether or not the real property will vest in time. What has happened to me is that I don't trust much of anything.

The trust started to drop with the formation of study groups. I saw people hoarding outlines. Then around finals people who were nice to others suddenly became mean. Most people started to lie about silly things like how much they studied and whether they really understood a complicated jurisdiction analysis. I'm not sure why people asked each other how much they studied but they did. Then people would say "Oh just a few hours last night."

Then my distrust grew larger. From not trusting classmates it turned to not trusting others outside of law school. I don't trust my landlord anymore. I pour over the lease agreement on a monthly basis. I have no doubt that they will screw me over if they can. I don't trust my cable company because it is a contract-free agreement. Where does that leave us? I want to know their duties.

Of course, probably the biggest distrust for me would be police. As a child I always trusted police. Now I don't trust a single one. I am certain they all lie to get ahead. They all make up facts if the story isn't fitting together too well. I fear being pulled over because, well, I have no respect for police officers at all. It would definitely show.

Finally, even though I want to go into criminal justice. I don't trust the system. From elected judges to juries that don't care. The entire thing is fucked up. Overall, I like the American criminal justice system better than other systems, but I think it has sunk to a bad level. Defense attorney's aren't adequately representing their clients, the judges have too many cases, the judges are too political, prosecutors are prosecuting cases that do not need to be prosecuted, and the public is eating the shit up because it looks like criminals are going to jail.

Law school never told me that I'd leave an untrusting bitter man.