When I first applied to law school and my friends and relatives were asking why, I would always joke that it was a combination of arrogance and Schadenfreude. Enough arrogance to believe that I would be able to handle the courses easily and keep myself above the stresses of law school life and a desire to delight in the sort of Schadenfreude that can only be delivered from watching a client, who failed to heed my brilliant advice, get steamrolled. As with many jokes, it wasn’t that far off was basically a way of trying to lie by telling the truth in a way that makes people think you’re insincere.
Even though my arrogance has not abated (as reliable sources have informed me on more than one occasion), the Schadenfreude aspect of my desire for law school has, in fact, changed. It has expanded.
