Friday, September 09, 2005
Reality Check
Yesterday we had our ACS Welcome Reception, and it was a success. We had about 20 people, including students from Northeastern, Harvard and Boston College, plus professors and a member of the ACS National Board of Advisors. People stayed to meet, greet, network and talk constitutional law and politics for nearly all of the scheduled hour and a half session.
At one point I was chatting with a 1L from one of the other schools, and he asked me whether we had much carry over in our membership from last year. I was explaining that most of us on the board were involved last year, when he got a confused look on his face, and said:
1L: Oh - are you a student... or a prof...
RSLS: *Interupting before he can finish "professor"* I'm a student, in the evening division. You'll find that many of us in the evening division are older than the day students.
This morning I told The Girl about this, with this conversation:
RSLS: One of the 1Ls thought I was a professor.
The Girl: Oh no, that's terrible!
RSLS: Why is that so terrible?
The Girl: Aren't the professors all old?
RSLS: *Pause* I actually AM older than some of the professors.
The Girl: Oh.
I then put it in context, that if I had gone to law school straight out of college, I would have graduated when I was 25, and have been in practice or teaching for 15 years at this point. If I'd gone right into teaching, I'd probably be not only a professor, but a tenured professor by now.
Of course, if I'd been attired in my usual student garb, there probably wouldn't have been the confusion in the first place. Not many professors wear cargo shorts, Tevas, and polo shirts to official events. But then neither do the leaders of the hosting group, so I was wearing dark blue slacks and a nice lavender button down shirt. And my Tevas. And I borrowed the nice clothes from The Girl.
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At one point I was chatting with a 1L from one of the other schools, and he asked me whether we had much carry over in our membership from last year. I was explaining that most of us on the board were involved last year, when he got a confused look on his face, and said:
1L: Oh - are you a student... or a prof...
RSLS: *Interupting before he can finish "professor"* I'm a student, in the evening division. You'll find that many of us in the evening division are older than the day students.
This morning I told The Girl about this, with this conversation:
RSLS: One of the 1Ls thought I was a professor.
The Girl: Oh no, that's terrible!
RSLS: Why is that so terrible?
The Girl: Aren't the professors all old?
RSLS: *Pause* I actually AM older than some of the professors.
The Girl: Oh.
I then put it in context, that if I had gone to law school straight out of college, I would have graduated when I was 25, and have been in practice or teaching for 15 years at this point. If I'd gone right into teaching, I'd probably be not only a professor, but a tenured professor by now.
Of course, if I'd been attired in my usual student garb, there probably wouldn't have been the confusion in the first place. Not many professors wear cargo shorts, Tevas, and polo shirts to official events. But then neither do the leaders of the hosting group, so I was wearing dark blue slacks and a nice lavender button down shirt. And my Tevas. And I borrowed the nice clothes from The Girl.
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Posted by Rogueslayer at 1:52 PM 
