Side Effects May Include...

Everyone tells you that law school changes the way you see and think about everything. No one ever tells you that it actually changes you physically too. I realized this yesterday, as I was applying my makeup foundation. Now usually I just apply a color that matches my skin tone because I want to cover the natural darkness under my eyes. Yet, as I was applying my makeup yesterday, I realized that the color no longer matched my skin. Yes, my tan is almost gone!

This was a very sad realization for me. Although part of this skin lightening can be attributed to the fact that I always get a little lighter during the winter and the fact that I live on the East Coast, I am certain that this situation was exacerbated by the notion that I am a law school student, confined to the law building, the library, or my apartment. Pretty much the only sun I get is waiting at the bus stop. Gone are the days when I would sit out on Bruinwalk, eat lunch on a patio, or soak up rays at football games.

So before you go to law school, read the fine print. Here are a few other physical side effects either from my person experience or that I have observed from others...

• Back problems. I feel like our school should be giving out free massages with the number of books and supplements we lug around with our computer. Fortunately, I think a lot of us have gotten smarter by reading for multiple days so we can strategically take home less books a night, doing work at the library, carrying our laptops in side bags, etc. And thank goodness for lockers.
  
• Impaired vision. As though we all didn't have bad enough vision from being the nerds we were before, it has only gotten worse by the amount of reading that we have. I particularly blame my contracts book with tiny print, small margins, and beige paper.
• Abused hands. As I look at my hands typing this entry, I see paper cuts from something, most likely from flipping through hundreds of pages of textbooks or printed out documents from the library. And I don't even want to think about the possible carpel tunnel.
• Colds. Having people from across the country come to one place and try to adjust to the weird weather patterns probably festers more germs than a kindergarten classroom. Factor in people's lack of sleep and stress level and you wonder why people get sick all of the time. I've had a sore throat begin a few times but fortunately I've fought off actually getting sick.
  
• 2nd hand smoke. I wonder if all of these people smoked before law school because outside of the law school is always a herd of people lighting up. Same goes with when you go out to lunch. All I have to say is that my asthma-prone lungs are glad that they're banning smoking at bars by the end of this year and that the majority of people I hang around don't smoke.
  
• Addiction to caffeine. While I can usually get through my day with decaf tea, I looked around my contracts today and saw dozens of the yellow coffee cups that they have up in the cafeteria and just as many cans of diet coke.
  

On the bright side, law school doesn't abuse your body as badly as I make it out to be. There isn't really the "freshman 15" that you get in undergrad. Most people don't think they've really gained weight, if anything they've lost some. And I know I actually get more sleep now than I did in undergrad. So yeah, overall I think my parents will be happy that I'm taking care of myself even if I am paler now.