I Took My Boyfriend To Class

It's no question that law school is tough. All through orientation I was told, "Law school is a marathon, not a sprint." However, I have the added stress of being in a long-distance relationship –  on top of my 1L status – which makes life a hectic, stressful feat, in and of itself.

One of the benefits of my relationship though is that my boyfriend, whom I've been with since November 2016, is a lawyer himself with his own criminal defense firm in Boise, Idaho. This makes the distance between us approximately 1,248 miles – not that I've confirmed this with Google Maps a dozen times for accuracy. While things are tough, he makes every attempt to visit me in Nebraska – especially during breaks. So far, he has visited Nebraska five times since August, when he helped me move into my apartment –  since I had a busted leg (but that's for another story). But, it was this last visit that made things really interesting as it was against his usual M.O. of visiting during breaks; he visited when I had class. So, I proceeded to bring him to class with me. It was either that or he stay at home by himself and the cats until taking him to the airport immediately after class. My boyfriend, two years post-Bar Exam and 2.5 years post-graduation, sat in on three of my second semester 1L classes: Legal Research & Writing II, Civil Procedure II, and Constitutional Law II.

**Disclaimer: I asked permission of all my professors a week or two in advance of my boyfriend actually sitting in class.

Legal Research & Writing II: 9:30-10:45a

This is my first class of the week and honestly, it's a great way to start. I sit in the very back of class - due to my having chosen the spot last semester due to my leg injury (again, this is for another story) - so, it was easy for my boyfriend to not be a distraction to the other students. My professor is very laid-back and has a sarcastic sense of humor, and she also brings baked goods on occasion. This day was no exception as she brought homemade cookies for everyone (there are approximately 16 kids in my LRW section). This week, our class was light in nature as we were doing mock oral arguments, for extra credit, in preparation of our Motion Brief oral arguments taking place next week.

After everyone got their cookies, and before we started oral arguments, my professor made sure everyone in class knew I brought "Show-and-Tell" to class. Boyfriend gave a brief introduction about himself and then gave everyone great reassurance that we are all in law school because we were rock stars in undergrad and that school believes in us and that this should translate to our oral arguments; go in confident, like a rock star, and believe in yourself. He also regaled the class about how terrified he is for his own upcoming oral argument in front of the Idaho Court of Appeals next month, letting everyone know that even as a lawyer, he still gets scared too. We then got into our mock oral arguments, which were all structured around silly topics like “heels are better than flats/flats are better than heels.” Since it was extra credit, and we were doing this for two class periods, I chose not to volunteer during class as the idea of giving an argument in front of Boyfriend – as well as being questioned by him – was nerve-wracking, even though I’ve watched him in court multiple times. Sure enough, he did ask questions of the other students who were presenting oral arguments and even got some kudos from my professor, who exclaimed how much she liked his style. Overall, he really enjoyed sitting in on this class with me.

Lunch Hour: 10:45a-1:00p

Everyone’s favorite time: lunch.  Boyfriend and I spent this time eating lunch that I had made the night before in the Commons. A few of my friends from class came by to talk to us a little bit more now that we were out of class. One of my classmates even told us that we have very similar smiles, something we had never been told before.

After eating lunch, I worked on filling out my application to be a 2L Orientation Mentor for next year’s incoming 1L class. Since this had to be submitted to the administrative offices, I introduced Boyfriend to the Assistant Dean of Admissions, who had watched me progress through my injury and heard all of the stories of how Boyfriend had been such a helpful and wonderful man during one of the hardest times. Plus, I had only been talking about him for the last 7.5 months, so she was dying to be introduced. She was so excited to finally be meeting Boyfriend that she came out and gave him a big hug because, “I feel like I know you at this point.” We talked for a good half an hour prior to going to class.

Civil Procedure II: 1:00p-2:30p

Honestly, Civil Procedure is probably the most boring class I could possibly have. However, my normal professor keeps it interesting by using Top Hat software for class participation. My professors NEVER calls on anyone during class. Unfortunately, we had a “substitute” professor to teach our class and it happened to be the teacher who is completely scatterbrained during lecture. So, we happened to be at the point in the course where we are discussing the Erie doctrine. For me, this topic is hard enough as it is but now I have a professor who gets sidetracked on random tangents trying to explain it to an entire class. Boyfriend found this class the hardest to sit through. We spent a good amount of time trading notes on a little piece of paper about little nuances that were going on. My professor was determined to see how our class had set up our “flowcharts” for the Erie doctrine – which I can guarantee, a majority of the class has not created a flowchart for this topic.

Professor kept asking us questions regarding an assignment that we had to do over the previous weekend, but no one was engaging or participating. Boyfriend found this the hardest part of sitting through second semester 1L classes: not being able to answer questions to which he now knows the answers to. He also took out the time to tell me that the Erie doctrine is really only a three-box flowchart for the Bar Exam, but that – of course for a 1L class – it would be a 15-box flowchart as it relates to school exams. Honestly, it was painful to watch Boyfriend sit through this class because it was just as painful for me and my classmates.

Constitutional Law II: 2:30p-3:45p

Boyfriend will be the first to tell you, he is a Con Law nerd. This actually rubbed off onto me in second semester of Con Law to where I found myself telling him, “I’m really sorry I said I hated Con Law so much.” Now, whenever I read something for class that I want to talk about, it turns into a 90-minute conversation about all the things related to that one topic.

Any who, my Con Law professor is also my favorite. He’s former military, wears impeccable tailored suits and I’m sure that every girl in class has somewhat of a crush on the guy. But, I digress.

We spent the day talking about First Amendment and fighting words, aka Chaplinsky issues. Being that Boyfriend is a Con Law nerd, he found it exceptionally hard to not input anything toward the conversation. He also commented afterwards about how he felt that my Con Law professor uses the Socratic method in one of the more proper ways he’s seen as well as the general overall structure. He also noticed how my Con Law professor tries to keep everything conversational and not as terrifying as it should be. He was kind of sad that we couldn’t get to one of his favorite First Amendment cases – Cohen v. California (1971). He will tell you this was probably his second favorite experience of coming to class with me.

Throughout the day, Boyfriend met several of my friends from class – all of whom I had told all about him because he’s just so awesome to me. Afterwards, a lot of my friends came up to me and told me how cool it was that he sat in on class with us and how nice of a guy he is. To be honest, I was terrified to have him come with me seeing that he had already done his three years of suffering, but overall it was an enjoyable experience.

Stay classy everyone!