Archive for "finals"
Legally in Love: Finding a Finals Fling
"Lizzie B." Caricature by Shaina Rubin
Sitting in the library the other day, I was catching up with a flirt-friend of mine. After discussing how our semesters and employment prospects were going, he abruptly changed the conversation and whispered, “So, do you want to be my girlfriend?”
“Um, excuse me?” I responded.
“Yeah – it will be great,” he said with all seriousness, “but then we have to break up once finals are over.”
Ahh, flirt-friend was on the hunt for his “finals-fling.” This always coincides with the post midpoint semester phase of students forming exclusive study groups, sending out desperate emails for outlines and purchasing last minute Glannon and Crunch Time books. So in addition to the pre-exam madness, you will spot some unattached BLSers on the lookout for a finals-fling.
To clarify, the finals-fling is a subset of B.L.S.G., but in this case, the boilerplate clause states that the hookup commences once you actually start to outline, involves minimal effort during exam period, and wraps up as soon as you sell your textbooks back at Boreum for an unfair price. Of course, there is room for variation when you are negotiating the agreement: will this be strictly sexual or does this include meals together? Is there a set schedule or can you randomly text one another when you’re done for the night. Are you required to shave your finals-beard / legs? And for those of you who are overly ambitious, will Flash Cards ever come into play?
Keep in mind that you want a partner who has a similar schedule to yours during finals. So if you are a 1L, it’s easiest to make your finals-fling another 1L. And for the upper classers, well if you have 4 finals and a take home to prepare for, it is best to stay away from your cute friend whose only concern is not failing his NYCP exam. When it comes to your finals-fling, you want to make this an asset to your study schedule. For instance, during my finals-fling at the end of my first year, I explained the finer points of the Dormant Commerce Clause to my partner, while he taught me the Rule Against Perpetuities.
However, the opposite reaction students experience once they start outlining is hermitude. [note: there is no relation to the Australian music group]. While cases can range from mild to extreme, hermitude involves going through long periods of self-induced isolation, only to interact with other human beings when sitting down to take an exam. Many students discover that they do their best studying whilst in a hermitude states – some even breaking up with a B.L.S.G. right before reading period so that they can fully commit to several weeks filled without any form of love, joy or laughter. If this happens to be you, try and break up with your B.L.S.G. before Thanksgiving, so that he/she can make a sound hook-up decision for finals.
For me, there have been several finals-fling prospects, but no real contenders. I explained to my flirt-friend that I am too burnt out from my previous B.L.S.G. experiences to even bother arranging a finals-fling into my already busy schedule. I will issue my final opinion for a post-tryptophan induced happiness.