One of my favorite things to do in law school: Shoot the (Breeze) with law school classmates (a.k.a. fellow inmates, especially during 1L year). If you don't think you've ever done this, you're probably wrong; shooting the breeze for me has a large circumference, encompassing a large array of activites such as talking before class starts, waiting at a bus stop, chatting on gmail, basically anything that involves talking. O, and it can't be business talking; it's gotta be mundane, effortless converstation that has no agenda. Pretty much the only rule. If you STILL don't think you've ever done this, you really need to try it: it's pretty liberating.
As much as you might think shooting the breeze is intuitive, here are some tips for making your experience more enjoyable:
1. LARGE, COMFY chairs/couches. Oooo boy, you want one of those places that envelopes your body and where you can just slide back and let the world pass by you. You're gonna enjoy yourself, especially if you're coming off a large food coma or 2-hour stretch of class. At USC Law, everyone knows what I'm talking about: the blue chairs area in the middle of the law school. A.K.A. heaven on earth.
2. Circular area, preferably some sort of counter in the center to put your feet on. One of the worst things you can do is not being able to see everyone who's talking within your natural window of vision; this greatly mitigates the awesome experience of shooting the breeze. You gotta place a voice w/ a face.
3. Allow other people ot finish what they are saying before you cut them off. Obviously not strictly enforced and no harsh prophylactic remedies in place, but you want to hear everyone's thoughts; Monopolies are not encouraged. You never know what good stories might be stifled if there's one guy constantly going: "that reminds me of a great story I have!"
4. When allowable/possible, have alcohol (preferably beers) avaiable and in ample quality. Although not a big beer drinker myself, I have found through the years that people's conversation level/ amount they will divulge correlates positively with the liquor that they consume.
5. Allow for others to join the Breezy Circle at a moment's notice. Actually the bigger your Breezy Circle gets, the cooler you seem as compared to other circles around you, thus creating a chain-reaction effect or "supernova effect" where the biggest stars envelop smaller stars. Sort of. You get the analogy, right?
6. If you take a minute or more to tell a story, please make it be (at least) somewhat funny. Different cutoffs fore different people; but in Robert's Breezy Circle long-windedness is not a virtue.
7. Try not to form 2-person clique conversations. Obviously "Yo your car is blocking my car in the parking lot" is allowed, but if you start clique-ing, as I call it, others in the Breezy Circle reserve the right to jump in.
8. Talking smack about other people (exception: public figures) not probitied, but not advised; especially in a setting with many people, you never know who's listening, and who's best friends with who, and who's the gossip-monger of the city. So lesson here: If you talk smack, it might just come back.
9. No TV series/ movies/ sports spoilers!!! This often comes up because someone's overly enthusiastic about a movie they just saw, or a game they were watching. It starts innocently, like "Hey did you see that Lakers game?" To be fair, the spoiler should be careful, but the spoilee also has the obligation to stop the spoiling pre-emptively.
There's also a statute of limitations: different thresholds for different people. I go by "if the movie's been out for 5 years, it's fair game." Also, "if the sports event happened more than a week ago, it's fair game."
10. Kick back, relax, and have a good time; there's not that many times in law school, work, or LIFE in general that you have time to just sit around and do NOTHING; there's no telling where a random conversation can take you; but along the way just make sure you have some fun.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
As much as you might think shooting the breeze is intuitive, here are some tips for making your experience more enjoyable:
1. LARGE, COMFY chairs/couches. Oooo boy, you want one of those places that envelopes your body and where you can just slide back and let the world pass by you. You're gonna enjoy yourself, especially if you're coming off a large food coma or 2-hour stretch of class. At USC Law, everyone knows what I'm talking about: the blue chairs area in the middle of the law school. A.K.A. heaven on earth.
2. Circular area, preferably some sort of counter in the center to put your feet on. One of the worst things you can do is not being able to see everyone who's talking within your natural window of vision; this greatly mitigates the awesome experience of shooting the breeze. You gotta place a voice w/ a face.
3. Allow other people ot finish what they are saying before you cut them off. Obviously not strictly enforced and no harsh prophylactic remedies in place, but you want to hear everyone's thoughts; Monopolies are not encouraged. You never know what good stories might be stifled if there's one guy constantly going: "that reminds me of a great story I have!"
4. When allowable/possible, have alcohol (preferably beers) avaiable and in ample quality. Although not a big beer drinker myself, I have found through the years that people's conversation level/ amount they will divulge correlates positively with the liquor that they consume.
5. Allow for others to join the Breezy Circle at a moment's notice. Actually the bigger your Breezy Circle gets, the cooler you seem as compared to other circles around you, thus creating a chain-reaction effect or "supernova effect" where the biggest stars envelop smaller stars. Sort of. You get the analogy, right?
6. If you take a minute or more to tell a story, please make it be (at least) somewhat funny. Different cutoffs fore different people; but in Robert's Breezy Circle long-windedness is not a virtue.
7. Try not to form 2-person clique conversations. Obviously "Yo your car is blocking my car in the parking lot" is allowed, but if you start clique-ing, as I call it, others in the Breezy Circle reserve the right to jump in.
8. Talking smack about other people (exception: public figures) not probitied, but not advised; especially in a setting with many people, you never know who's listening, and who's best friends with who, and who's the gossip-monger of the city. So lesson here: If you talk smack, it might just come back.
9. No TV series/ movies/ sports spoilers!!! This often comes up because someone's overly enthusiastic about a movie they just saw, or a game they were watching. It starts innocently, like "Hey did you see that Lakers game?" To be fair, the spoiler should be careful, but the spoilee also has the obligation to stop the spoiling pre-emptively.
There's also a statute of limitations: different thresholds for different people. I go by "if the movie's been out for 5 years, it's fair game." Also, "if the sports event happened more than a week ago, it's fair game."
10. Kick back, relax, and have a good time; there's not that many times in law school, work, or LIFE in general that you have time to just sit around and do NOTHING; there's no telling where a random conversation can take you; but along the way just make sure you have some fun.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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