My three Fridays

My transition from worker-bee to law student has caused some predictable changes: I don't "clock out" when I leave my last class, I don't get a paycheck, I drink like a fish with about 300 people in my approximate age and educational cohort in a big Lincoln Park bar I'd never go to. Less predictably, I've changed the concept of the week. I used to work six or seven days a week (combined) at my old jobs, but the rhythym has changed. For example, I now have three "Fridays," which is to say that three things that made Friday the most meaning-laden weekday for me have been spread out over Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Here's how:

Wednesday: I have three classes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and two on Thursday and Friday, respectively. From the moment when I step out on to the street with my impossibly heavy bag and never-full-enough coffee mug, I steel myself by noting that if I can survive today without saying anything too stupid, I'm more or less done with the hard part. In my 9-to-5, we had a normal workload on Fridays, so in comparison, it's more like Wednesday than actual (calendar) Friday.

Thursday: I wake up two full hours later on Thursday, just like during most of college. This day also has the virtue of being Bar Review Day, my first opportunity of the week to socialize that doesn't involve books. I only went out on Thursdays as a 9-to-5er because the morning was so punishing (the day after this was... uggh). I still had to work on Fridays, but the promise of darkness, booze and smoky clothing made the load feel a little lighter.

Friday: It's Friday, duh. Classes cease for the next two days and I can leave that final lecture feeling like I've accomplished something in a unit worth measuring. Like elementary school, Friday is the day I get out early. Last week, a group of us availed ourselves of lunch at a downtown restaurant, an alien concept during the rest of the week. In fact, I'm willing to go out on a limb here and claim that Friday is better than the weekend, at least for law students, because when the day is done and you've spent nearly all of it inside reading cases, you don't feel like you've squandered as much in terms of outdoor opportunities.