Today is the last day of class for me in any forum of formal education. Ever. In fact, as I write this, I am sitting in class, and there are 23 minutes left. In 23 minutes, I will be done with class forever (at least class that leads to a degree--I'll still go to Sunday School). It's a weird feeling.

It's easy to remember the last day of school back in elementary, junior high, or high school. We thought it was the best day ever. But for all the joy that existed each May or June (or whenever that was), I still had to come back every August or September. Actually, part of the joy of finishing, say, 5th grade was the notion that "I'm now a 6th grader." I even felt that way at the end of finals last year. It was just as cool to say "I'm a 3L" as it was to say "No more class for the summer." Now, I just say "I'm a lawyer." Or something like that. When I leave class in 20 minutes (time passes as I type), I will know that I won't be coming back into a classroom in the fall. I'll be starting a real job. That's both exciting and a bit daunting.

But what surprises me the most is the fact that today's Federal Courts lecture is on a topic that the professor has repeatedly emphasized will not be on the exam. He even started off the lecture today by saying, "If you have your laptops open, I will assume you're surfing." Yet the entire class is here. I admit I considered not coming today. I bet others did too. But we all showed up to listen to the professor tell us something (granted, something probably useful one day) that we're not accountable for in the exam next week. I don't know whether I'm proud of my classmates (and myself) for being so dedicated and interested, or whether I'm disgusted that we're such automatons that we can't find better ways to spend our time. No one is paying attention, at least (look at me--I'm blogging!).

The upside, I suppose, is that in 17 minutes, I'll never have to worry about whether it's worth it to go to class again.