One of my most vivid memories from when I was a little kid was when I was complaining about something at dinner with my family. My Grandpa was there at the table, waiting for someone to shut me up. I must have been complaining about something post-toddlers complain about: Being hungry, bored, tired, wanting something etc. My Grandpa wasn’t the most patient of men. I remember my Dad telling me he had just gotten out of a very long surgery, so his nerves were frazzled. He didn’t tell me to STFU or yell at me, but in his own way he did – with an anecdote. He told 5 year old WK this story:
“When I was growing up in Tehran, about your age, I had a pet chicken that I loved very much. My mother was very poor because my father had just died. Women weren’t allowed to own anything of value. Well, one day she had people coming over for a dinner, just like we’re having now. Where I came from you had to do almost everything you could to impress your guests. So my mother killed my pet chicken and fed it to the guests because it was expected. I wasn’t allowed to be ungrateful as a child, so I would have been punished had I not eaten the chicken. Remember, you have nothing to be unhappy with right now.”
It really was that clinical of a description. This memory stands out to me for two reasons. First, that’s sort of a heavy story to tell to a kid, especially because my Grandpa was like an Persian Sean Connery with verbal delivery like a sniper rifle and he’d lay it down cold and hard, even to a kid. Second, it was the first time, that I can remember at least, that I shifted out of my own frame of reference, stopped complaining, and realized how good I’ve got it and how bad it could be. It’s tough to make 5 year olds feel grateful and maybe harder to get them to shut up. Well, he was so effective that 18 years later I still think about that story when I’m whining.
When I start to feel like law school is a lot of work, I try to remember and take a step back, place my circumstances into context and remember it ain’t nothin’ compared to the actual work and toil most people on the planet partake in. Case in point. I don’t always succeed in remembering how swell things are, but I do try to make an effort not to be a malcontent.
I’m certain whining is endemic to the general law student population, because while I love my peers, we bitch a lot, myself included. It seems like discontent kind of fits with law school. But then I feel kind of silly for getting caught up in it. I feel silly because everything I could whine about is trivial compared to how generally fantastic things are – even when they’re at their worst.
Nothing unfortunate has happened recently. In fact, I’m pretty contented right now. I just wanted to share that.
-WK
Posted by WK 