no idle worship

"Superstition is the religion of feeble minds."
--Edmund Burke

As a former first baseman, long-distance swimmer, and general worry-wart, I saddle myself with than the normal amount of superstitious baggage. When it comes to taking law exams, it doesn't pay to mess around. If law professors have drilled anything into me over the last six semesters, it's that my mind is feeble.

Yet it occurred to me this morning, as I sat down for a three-hour quiz over Texas Trial & Appellate Procedure, that maybe my superstitions have gotten out of hand. A list of the things I brought with me to my exam:

1) Three mechanical pencils.

First year I took only one. Second year I took two. You get the idea.

2) One roll of SweetTarts

A cute girl gave me some of these before my Texas Criminal Procedure Exam last spring. So I got that going for me.

3) One green plastic army man

His arm sticks out as if to say, "this way to an A!"

4) One pocket watch with dead battery

I used to carry this around as my watch, back when pocket watches were cool. It died in the middle of an exam once, and I made an A on that exam. Now, I set it to the time the exam starts each and every exam I take.

5) One WWII-era aviator's watch (chronometer)

The Pilot gave this to me. It works on kinetic energy, pretty swank for 1944 tech if you ask me. Seeing as how he flew nighttime covert ops in a B-24 over Germany and France with this watch, I figure this piece of stainless is worth its weight in gold when it comes to luck.

As you might guess, my desk gets pretty cluttered when I take an exam. But to me the peace of mind is worth it. With the watches and army man by my side, I've never made less than a B+, with the exception of Bankruptcy last semester.

And as any law student knows, the 'kruptcy don't kount.