As many of you know I came to law school primarily because I love mock trial. It was a huge part of my life for the 7 years leading up to college graduation so I figured I would take the next logical step and make it my job. Competing in mock trial got me to know a lot of interesting people from other programs around the country, but one of the most interesting people I ever met from mock trial was Rival.
During my high school mock years only 2 teams ever won the state championship: Mine and Rival's. We never spoke outside of the court room, we were too intense to be friendly with each other, but we knew exactly who each other were. Every year we would track each other's progress knowing that the road to the championship would ultimately lead us through each other. He was the only person in high school that every beat me individually (or at least the only person I ever admitted beat me individually). When I went on to the college mock trial circuit and he was no where to be found I thought that he simply vanished. Then I showed up to law school.
By some strange serendipity, Rival chose the exact same small Minnesota law school as I did. Although we were in different large sections (my entire 1st year class is split up between A and B) we happened to be put into the same Lawyering skills class, the only class I had with anyone in the B section. So one day while failing to pay attention I see a familiar face, and for a moment I doubt whether I am remembering him correctly. After class I see him outside in the hallway and I walk up to him. "Hey, did you by chance do mock trial for [school MCC] in high school?" When he told me that he was the captain of his high school team I got a bit excited.
That afternoon it seemed like all the talking we didn't do in high school was all determined to come out at once. We talked to each other about our different experiences and found them to be unbelievably similar (which I guess I should have expected). Since then we have become friends and I find him to be one of the most interesting people I have "met" in law school. Here are some tidbits about Rival:
- Although rival is a small man (only about 5'6") he is pretty easily the most muscular person at our school. It is strange because in high school a few of the people on my team called him "the baby" because he was so shrimpy. When I asked him about it he told me that when he stopped doing mock, he had to find something else to occupy his time. This led him to start weightlifting. Every day. For 2 hours at time.
- He carries a backpack around that sticks out behind him for around 2/3 of his height (no joke). It is actually kind of obscene how many books he carries in there, I don't think he ever uses his locker.
- although he is extremely well spoken and eloquent, he doesn't talk a lot. He is pretty quiet and doesn't socialize much at school.
most strangely:
- Although Rival is on the dean's list for our class, he hasn't looked at a single one of his grades. Not one test or one paper. He didn't even know he was on the dean's list until it was posted and people came up and congratulated him. This concept is so foreign to me I didn't know how to respond. I asked him how he does it and he told me that he takes a very Marxist approach to the work he does. He doesn't care about the grade, or the money that will come from them- he just wants to do something he loves and which provides value to his community.
I think Rival is a pretty fucking cool kid.
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