The Real World

What looks like row upon row of empty, uncomfortable, plastic chairs to the average passer-by is something exceedingly more symbolic to the 119 members of the Regent Law Class of 2011.

This time tomorrow 119 Juris Doctor degrees will have been conferred, 119 names announced, 119 tassels turned, and 119 of Regent Law’s alumni will be plunging head-first into that all too imminent realm allusively referred to as “the real world.”

But what were the last three (or more) years of law school for these 119 men and women if not reality?

Sleepless nights and countless hours spent poring through cases, preparing briefs, and identifying fact patterns were not figments of their imaginations. And what is more real than the exultation that accompanies a passing grade, competition win, appointment to a desired internship, understanding of a concept previously considered impossible to grasp, or a study break long overdue?

The confusion, stress, prayers, elation, caffeine jolts and tears of angst and joy of 119 students and their families, friends, and professors could not have been more real—and are exactly what compose the so-called real world.

So tomorrow 119 real Regent Law students will become real Regent Law alumni to the soundtrack of snapping flash bulbs, explosive applause, “Pomp and Circumstance,” and the real beating of their real hearts, as they sit in really uncomfortable plastic chairs.

This is real life in the real world.


By Molly Eccles