Girlfight in Barbri

The morning and the evening classes at Boalt seem markedly different. Maybe it is the type of people that go to the morning classes, the greater number of people, or maybe it the the less comfortable room, but it seems like there are more quirky and anxious people in morning Barbri. I get there every morning no later than 8:30 to find a seat. Unfortunately the class meets in Booth Auditorium and thus has a limited amount of seats with ample table space. Late comers have to squeeze into the side seats with tables approximately the size of a legal pad. Given that reality, I understand how some people get tense when they can't get a good seat.

It therefore came as no surprise that we finally had a fight over seats in class. Every morning the people like me who come early, pick a seat and sometimes drape a coat over a chair to save a seat or two for our chronically late friends. Some poor soul did the same thing and got more drama than was deserved.

Just like many of us, a girl saved a seat to her left and to her right in one of the front rows. (If she was saving a whole row, I might see things differently.) Another girl (anxious girl) came in and was upset about the saved seat because it was the seat she customarily sat in. The girl stood her ground and anxious girl took a seat in the front row. As the barbri video started anxious girl started to twitch and decided that she wanted her old seat. After all, the seat was still vacant and the video had begun. Nevermind that the person who was going to sit in the seat was just arriving or that anxious girl had a new and comparable seat, she wanted to sit in her old seat. (As an aside, this is not the first time anxious girl took a "saved" spot. The difference this time was that someone put up a fight)

After anxious girl pushed aside the stuff saving the seat she tried to sit in the seat. What ensued was actually kind of comical. Both girls tried to push each other out of the seat and at some point one of them was sitting on top of the other. Some of the people in the class freaked out that they were not able to pay attention during the cat fight and asked for the video to be stopped. The whole thing was ridiculous.

While I generally don't begrudge people the quirks that help them survive bar hell, there is something to be said for realizing when you you are getting out of hand. If someone take your favorite seat, get over it, sit in another seat. I know it sucks, but it just means you either need to come to class earlier or go to the evening class where there is absolutely no jockeying for seats. Don't force someone to give up the spot they may have saved for their friend (who could be in the bathroom or running late for some good reason) just because you didn't get to class earlier. This is especially true if there are many other good seats to chose from. I think I would have been more sympathetic to anxious girl if she didn't already secure a perfectly suitable replacement seat. I know for a fact I would have put up a fight the same way non-anxious girl did.