1 You’ve lost all semblance of anything close to a “normal” sleep schedule and catch yourself brewing coffee at midnight and going to bed “for the night” at seven am.

2 You’ve lost all sense of “normal business hours” and try to go Christmas shopping or to the post office at 1am, immediately after perfecting an outline.

3 You have no idea what day of the week it is—except it’s not a day on which you have a final.

4 You have friends and classmates who have completely disappeared, witness protection style. No one has seen or heard from these people since your last class together and you only see them at the actual exam. They somehow vanish before you even turn in your test booklet.



5 You know at least three classmates who deactivated Facebook to “minimize distractions.” Unfortunately, they distract you by reminding you repeatedly that they “aren’t on Facebook right now.”

6 Of the classmates who remain on Facebook, you can count on at least three for excessive and needless status updates on studying and outline progress. They have no social life, hence the using of social media to brag about perceived accomplishments. No one is interested, impressed, or threatened.

7 The concept of appropriate law school attire has degenerated into anything the person has handy that is remotely clean. People show up to finals in tank tops and winter hats, no longer even giving the pretense of concern for appearance.

8 You receive emails from classmates with miscellaneous outlines or notes that have sign offs like, “if you share this with anyone, you will be disappeared.”

9 You start going to the undergrad library to study because people who haven’t been in the law library all semester decided to set up camp there—at the table you’ve used all semester.

10 If you stay in the law school to study, there are always a handful of people “studying” who don’t want or know how to study. They approach you and say “You went to ____ for undergrad, right?” Uhh, what? We aren’t even friends. This is not the time for icebreaker get-to-know-you games.

Good luck to everyone going through finals. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. It’s neon and advertising the shot specials you’ve missed so much while studying.