In Which Belle Debates Going to Her Own LL.M. Graduation

(I'm still formulating my thoughts on classes you should take or avoid in law school and why)

Brief, because I want to be perfunctory:

The LL.M. program is a one-year terminal masters. To an American with a J.D., it feels like a fourth year of law school. If I went it would be my big hoopla third graduation ceremony, and not as significant to me as a SJD graduation, even though it's a terminal master's program.

My parents aren't going. They don't fly, and live too far away to comfortably make the journey, and my siblings work six days a week. So no one from my immediate family is going. Most of my friends are too far away as well, and have made trips to visit me for far more fun randomness. So the only people who would go to "watch" me "walk" are probably my friends' parents and my future roomate.

I have only a few friends in the program, and only a few more friends at the larger law school and university. It's going to be one of those ceremonies I show up to immediately before, snap quickly a few pictures with about 3-4 people, and then leave as quickly to toast/drink away the memories.

But I'm thinking of going anyway.

Why?!


Because, as Hipster Law Prof Dude says, "drama makes for good memories." So my feelings about not going to a ceremony that is the finale to law school drama would be like not seeing the climax and denouement of a strange and dramatic story.

Because I feel like I owe it to my parents to at least walk and send them one picture. My brother called yesterday, asking me if I wanted him to buy regalia gear and diploma frames. Now I feel like I can't not go.

Because, as Brilliant Bon Vivant Law Student says, unless I have "something better to do," (I don't) it's fun to "strut across the stage."

Okay, then.