By: Lillian Perez

Last semester, one of our blog staff editors, Lillian Perez, set out to discover what CUNY Law students think about being law students in this day and age.

A conversation with CUNY Law Students:

• I interviewed 8 CUNY Law students, and I asked them the question that had been looming in the back of my mind since this semester started…how are you a law student while the world seems to be burning? The heaviness of the world had felt unbearable, and I thought I was the only one feeling it. I could not sit in my classes learning about the nuances in the law without thinking: What’s the point? Everything in the world feels egregious, and absolutely nothing seems to be changing. I am tired. I feel defeated.
• Lucky for me, I wasn’t the only one feeling this way. Hearing about their experiences and emotional disposition over the last few months has helped me navigate my internal sentiments.
• Here are eight things I have learned while conducting these interviews with some brilliant CUNY Law students that have, quite frankly, changed my life. If you have been feeling inundated or suffocated by the state of the world, their perspectives might help you, too, or at the very least, make you feel less alone.

Eight things I learned from 8 CUNY Law Students

1. Compassion Fatigue is real.
2. The world is not getting worse. It has always been abhorrent.
   1. Imperialism and colonialism have, on every occasion, been the standard of accumulating power at the expense of indigenous people. The American educational system, for example, indoctrinates children at a young age to believe the one-sided history written in their textbooks without asking any questions. There is a culture of praising explorers and navigators while conveniently leaving out the organized genocides that led to their self-proclaimed power.
3. It is a life skill to learn how to be one with the world while simultaneously learning how to operate in a world that is run on a broken system.
   1. It is easy to get overwhelmed, and it is hard to be present when you are constantly being reminded of how inherently broken the legal system is. It is important to be thoughtful and reflect on what is triggering you.
   2. You can ground yourself by asking: What are my triggers? What do I feel most susceptible to? How do I mitigate that so I am not swallowed by my environment?
4. There is a difference between action and reaction: When you take the time and energy to figure out both what it is you are most concerned about and delineate that from what is in your control versus what is out of your control, you are left with this reserved configuration. This is what is significantly impacting you, and this is something you can actively try to dismantle. By leaving out everything that is out of your control, you will have enough energy to strategize how to organize around your passions. There is great power in functional strategy. This is the sweet spot where you can help those who are being affected without depleting your own energy source.

5. Acting in honorarium for those who are no longer with us is powerful: One of the students I interviewed had experienced a tremendous amount of loss this semester. When I asked them how they could navigate their emotions while being an active community organizer and staying on top of their schoolwork, they said, “I am guided by the people who would otherwise be encouraging me to be present. If they would be present, I should be too.”
6. It is hard to focus on anything when you know your classmates are hurting.
7. Grief is a beast. It is okay to acknowledge your grief even when law school doesn’t give you the space to do that. Law school can wait. Your grief cannot.
8. Showing up is enough, even when it feels hard to.
   1. “If I show up and do the work, I can get through this, and hopefully, if I keep showing up, I can use the law to help other people.”

My main takeaways from the conversations:

Sharing this experience with my classmates has provided me with enough hope, love, and guidance to persevere through any challenges forthcoming in my near future. I have experienced the complete force that comes from dialogue. These interviews have revealed the unequivocal importance of engaging in these small conversations.

Safeguarding these conversations with one another can be just as impactful and motivating as any other form of grassroots or social activism. Dialogue can inspire anything, and it is these conversations with one another that sustain us amid revolution. Change does not come in one big wave. Extraordinary change is rooted in community and conversation with one another.

While the world may feel like it is burning, it is within one another that we will find a rejuvenating lifeline that will loosen the grip of the world that we are dedicated to reforming.