the importance of being earnest

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"The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
Modern life would be very tedious if it were either,
and modern literature a complete impossibility!"
-- Oscar Wilde


i took a rare "break" today and skipped the ritual of going to the library in favour of "mingling"... you know it's pretty bad when your fellow law students call you a "nerd" and tell you to relax... actually, that's a misconception of theirs... i'm a lazy bum really... half of the time i spend in the library is wasted doing the dumbest things... chatting on msn... downloading music... checking e-mail... and yes, writing journals :P


anyway, we took a walk through the main campus, outside the confines of the hallowed halls of the law school... and so, of course, the question came up: "are we really that different? or are we just being pretentious?"

one colleague expressed the frustration [?] of feeling that she has to "hide" the fact that she's in law school... "other people get intimidated... especially guys..." when they find out who you are and what you do...


why is it that she feels the need to be (dare i say?) apologetic for her accomplishment? is it that ppl have such a bad perception of lawyers (and, as a corollary, law students)? or is it that we don't want to seem pretentious by actually acknowledging, with pride, our discipline?


is it pretentious really? if i wore a hoodie around with my school name emblazoned on it, would i be a priss? if i'm meeting new ppl and introducing myself and what i do, should i just be mumbling "i go to law school"?


i'll be the first to admit that i have a bit of an elitist mentality... but in a meritocracy such as ours, why shouldn't one be proud of what they've accomplished? and more importantly, why shouldn't one be proud of what they want to accomplish?


this is who i am... this is what i do... deal with it...
i don't mean that in any sense of "holier-than-thou"...

but like that proverbial doctrine in tort, you take the subject as he is... and this is me... a law student... a future member of the legal profession... with all his quirks and foibles and duties and responsibilities and thoughts and emotions... this is me... this is a big part of me... but this isn't all of me...

i don't intend to "intimidate" anyone by making that declaration... i don't pretend that i'm smarter or better or more valuable as a person... i give ppl the respect they are afforded... what's due of their character and their actions...

it's unfortunate that some would feel the need to try to "keep up" or just give up altogether... but no, i'm not going to hide it... but neither am i going to hire a skywriter... i am not reducible to one role (or the perceptions/ assumptions/ preconceptions that flow from that)... i just want to be accepted and understood (and, dare i say, loved?) for who i am...


is that being pretentious? or just being too earnest?


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