If you look at the glass as half-empty, there's no surprise when you run out of Diet Coke.

I allowed myself to get lulled into believing I'd graduated magna cum laude, which at USF is the top 5% of the graduating class. I allowed this to happen because the percentile charts put me in the top 5% at the end of the semester. I tried to remind myself (and others) of how the glass was half-empty. Because not everyone who is a 3FT, 4FT, or 4PT graduated, not everyone would be calculated in the numbers. In addition, I wasn't sure if December 2007 grads were included in the spring numbers.

At this point, I'm pretty sure they weren't. Peters and Alexander, I'm holding you two responsible for my current malaise. I imagine that neither of you were included in the 3.54 cutoff, so when you two were added back in, I got bumped out with my 3.54 (the final cutoff was 3.55.)

Part of the problem is that I kept raising my standards. When I started law school, I declared I'd be thrilled to graduate cum laude. Now I have, and I'm disappointed, which is somewhat pathetic. So be it.

Let me just conclude by mentioning how heartily I wish to congratulate my friend Tarek Sorensen, who made not only my recent bar studying, but all of law school more bearable. Having not raised his expectations, he was completely confused when I called him and started shouting "Summa!" into the phone.

Greg, a big congratulations to you. That's a terrific accomplishment.