taking care of business

Well, I have to say (and I may regret this Thursday) I do feel ready for our Business final. Kudos to all my friends who I have studied with and my family as well. In an interesting way, talking through the class with my parents tonight somewhat simulated the exam itself.

I spent an uneventful half hour with my mother, where she quizzed me on case names and rules. She tag-teamed with my dad, and I thought I'd do the same thing with him, but he interrupted me by saying he didn't think it would be good to talk about this stuff with him because he is singularly disillusioned with the state of business law in the country (hope I'm not misquoting him here). I told him he was wrong and that this is the very meat of what we've been learning, and we spent an intense half hour of me going systematically through my knowledge and explaining where he was right about the state of things and where he was wrong, where the law is actually improving things right before our eyes, and where it has some room for improvement. Telling him where the law is a little unreasonable and where it's making strides to improving all our lives. And I have to say, debating policy issues with someone who's been out there, who has experienced life and businesses in a very real and personal way, is completely different from debating theory in a classroom or a study session with friends. And yet the two of us were both happy at the end of our debate. My dad was impressed that I was able to keep up my end of the conversation so well with so many illustrative examples. He was also impressed at the changes in the law that I informed him about, reasons to hope in the midst of corruption. And I was happy that I had not only kept up in the conversation, but was able to explain exactly what the law is and how things are progressing in the law to create such hope.

All in all, I feel like I went through my own miniature version of the exam tonight in the discussions with my parents: first, the cerebral issue spotting and second, the emotion-filled policy question. I just hope it goes as well on the real exam. But however I do on paper, I feel like I really did learn something-- a few things-- this semester. And that feels good.