Final Rituals

When I was a kid, I played a softball and soccer and was not very good at either. But my real competitive side came out when I did 4-H speech competitions and speech contests at school. That was like my sport and before each competition, I had my ritual: drink water and eat wintergreen altoids. Good luck and good breath.

Nowadays, law school final exams are like game days. And while I have my pack of wintergreen altoids still in my bag, I have added a list of rituals before every exam. Here are just some:

• I have at least one bottle of Vitawater on my desk-- the only time of the year I buy those things.
• Get my brain blessed at church the weekend before finals commence.
  
• For afternoon finals, I have to eat a Wagshals West Coaster Sandwich for lunch.
  
• When testing on the first floor, I have to be in Room 101, not 100.
• I must listen to my ipod before the exam starts.

I am extremely superstitious, and am afraid that if I alter from what I do on good test days, things will go very wrong. It sounds silly but Michael Jordan always wore his North Carolina Tar Heels shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform for good luck, Winston Churchill petted black cats for good luck, and Barack Obama played basketball for basketball on election days for good luck. People do what they have to do. I am just hoping there is no one in my exam tomorrow that is like James Carville, who wore lucky underwear for days at a time.