They say (they being the ultimate in non-specific generalisations) that the reason vampires don’t have a reflection in the mirror is because they don’t have a soul. That’s an interesting opening sentence for this blog. It turns out Keira Knightley agrees with the “Australian Aborigines” who believe that every photo steals a portion of your soul (sucks to be wearing red at the Oscars then). (And now for the “reveal” when it comes to this somewhat bizarre segue) As a result of some three years spent as a law student I estimate that I too have lost a significant portion of my soul. I was talking to my friend Ben this afternoon – who has just started doing law post-grad – about why I dropped law and decided to turn my rant into this post.
I didn’t like the smug superiority that radiated from the inevitably private school educated pretty boys with their deck shoes and polo shirts – or the “look at me” hairstyles with sticking up fringes invariably worn by single-sex-school-educated girls who carried all their books around in those rectangular shopping bags from Sportsgirl or whatever chain it is they liked to buy their ridiculously undersized shorts from.
Mature aged students though – the ones who through lack of better judgement thought that asking pointless hypothetical questions, that have no real application in the world they’re so much more familiar with than the run-of-the-mill high school graduate, were actually improving the quality of the education of the younger “peers” who were just so lucky to have the benefit of their company in class – they are the worst kind of animal. Their existence is so pointless and vacuous that one wonders why they didn’t stick with whatever mediocre career path they were no doubt traversing when they decided “a law degree will no doubt aid my slowing ascent up the corporate ladder and keep the yapping jaws of the generation below me who already boast multiple paper qualifications thanks to the somewhat new university policy of maximising revenue through double degrees away from my heels for just that little bit longer…
And that ladies and gentlemen, along with the fact that I wanted to salvage part of my soul, is why I dropped law – and also why I’m glad I don’t have to sit through a lecture with mature aged students who are being “retrained” or “reeducated” or “reskilled” on the company credit card. I’m also startled by the realisation that my peers (ala Ben) are now exactly that type of person.
