Friday Night

Just got back from a bar, where I hung out with S, A, and R for the past three hours. J and her husband were also there. It's been a long week and I was feeling really tired. This group of people didn't really get along and the conversation was somewhat strained and consisted mainly of section gossip. ("Who is the prettiest girl in our section?" "Who would you hook up with?" "Who has she kissed?" etc., etc. , etc.) I was beginning to get bored after 1.5 hours, but people showed no sign of leaving and kept on ordering more drinks. I think they were determined to get drunk. Based on my hungover experience last week, I was careful to only have one drink and then just drank water. Finally, I decided to leave when S ordered a large pitcher of beer.

...

Walking home in the dark, I purposely took the route that would take me through campus, and peeked into the buildling where we have most of our classes. There is a hallway that is my favorite place on campus. Professor's black-and-white photos hung on the wall. Usually, people were always walking by and one can't look at the photos too carefully. But now, the hallways were deserted and I gazed at them for a while from the outside.

I like looking at these photos. They are so well done and show our professors in their best and most humane light. My school take these photos when the professor gets tenure, and hang them in the most traveled hallways in the entire school. My torts professor's photo, for instance, was taken more than 30 years ago, when he was a younger man (who already looked somewhat old) and not so grandfatherly. He is smiling one of his half-smiles that looks so wistful and almost sad, and he looks very wise.

Then there is my crim law professor from 20 years ago, his hair still dark, standing, with one hand in his pocket and another hand gesturing, looking away from the camera and seems caught in the middle of a sentence. The feature of his face in the photo is younger, most energetic, less settled, though you can already see the man that he was going to become 20 years later.

And then there is my civ pro professor, a woman in her 40s. The photo was taken from not so long ago. She is sitting, leaning forward slightly, holding a mug, looking straight at the camera with her large doe eyes, smiling. Anyone looking at the photo would notice her softness, elegance, and warmth.

I like looking at the photo of other professors too, some famous, some not so famous. The photographer always seems to capture them at the moment where they look most essentially themselves. Some look so wise. Others look so clever and sharp. Some look grave and calm while others are caught "in action". One older female professor looks so astonishingly pretty in her photo that I often look at it as I passed by, thinking how lucky it is that this moment of her beauty is seen by her students every day.

Why does my school hang these photos in the hallway? To celebrate our professors, certainly. Our school is nothing without their scholarship and their mentorship (is that a word?). But these photos also remind us of how human they are, the men and women who made their mark on the law school and on the world of law.

Black and white photos always evoke history, gravity, and memories, and these photos especially so. Looking at these photos, I always feel keenly aware that they belong to the history of this law school -- their contribution is celebrated and memorialized here.

And then -- I always secretly feel a little lucky that I belong to this extraordinary community, that I am allowed to walk among them, just for a little bit, for a little while.

I am exhausted now... should go to bed before I say sillier things. Good night, all.