Well, it's over.

I feel like the bar exam deserves a big giant post akin to the birth stories that so many bloggers post after they go through the harrowing experience of having a child.  We'll get there (it's in the draft stage for now), but right now, let's just make a list of Things You Ought to Know About the Bar.

1. Most folks think being a lawyer is glamorous.  They'd mostly be wrong about that, but that's another post.  I think most folks also think the bar exam is probably a glamorous affair.  They would be absolutely wrong about that.  It's a strange feeling to be sitting in a building from circa 1960 at the NC State Fairgrounds at a rickety, splintered table with the buzz of the electric lights above you.  But that's where it happens, my friends.  Nothing glamorous about it.
2. Despite its humble setting, the law examiners take themselves quite seriously.  So seriously that the exam comes and is picked up daily in an armored truck.  That made me chuckle inside just a little bit.
3. Taking the bar exam while you have a monstrous cold is not something I'd recommend.  I'm sure anyone who sat around me and listened to my perpetual snotting and coughing would wholeheartedly agree with that statement.
4. You can study all you want.  It doesn't really matter.  I think studying is more for your own mental health in the weeks leading up to the bar.  There is gonna be some mess on there that Barbri never told you a thing about.  You cross your fingers and take solace in the fact that everybody else feels that way too.

Above all, this past week was a great reality check.  I was getting a tad disheartened with my job.  But you know, as much as I like a lot of the people I was commiserating with this week, it became clear to me that I fit in much better in the world I'm in now.  Mainly, I was missing being in a 6th grade classroom.  It was tough to sit there with all the people who have no idea what they're doing after this week, who are planning on going on some extended vacation before their results come in, who don't know what will happen after that.  I was almost feeling guilty.  I just kept thinking about how blessed I am to have a job that is paying our bills, that I really do love.  

And now, I'm focusing on doing the laundry that hasn't been done in two months, the novels on my Kindle that have sat neglected, and the weenie dogs that need snuggling!