Today is the Bar Exam. Like many other academic support professors, I travel to the bar exam testing site with the graduates to lend logistical support and emotional support. Much like the movie Groundhog Day, where I'm Bill Murray, the experience is novel to the applicants, but rather predictable for me. This year, like prior years, I expect to see applicants:
Smiling, both genuinely and veiled
Crying
Laughing, sometimes involuntarily due to exhaustion
Hugging (lots of hugging!)
Pacing and tapping their feet nervously
Exercising (i.e. jumping jacks, sit-ups) in the hallway around 3:30 p.m.
Sharing Tums and Advil freely
Forgetting their ID or admission ticket
Loosing their ID or admission ticket (So far, I've tracked down lost IDs in the parking lot, at a gas station in another state(!), inside the testing site, and in a hotel room. Once, I even had a new ID printed at the DMV at 8:00 a.m. on the second day of the exam.)
Isolating themselves in every nook and cranny of the testing site during the registration and breaks
Carrying around plastic bags containing "authorized items"
Tossing book bags and lunch bags into a "secure" pile in the corner of the hotel lobby
Sporting lucky charm shirts and sweaters
and laser focused.
But, unlike Bill Murray's character in the movie, I don't want to wake up to a new day. I love my bar exam Groundhog Day experience, year after year. I'm thrilled to be a part of one of the most memorable days in a J.D. graduate's life. Good luck everyone! (Kirsha Trychta)
