And here we are in February. What happened to January? Or December? How did I manage to accomplish so little in four weeks? How will I now make up for that slack? When do I even have time to read, let alone answer my emails? What have I gotten myself into?

I once felt that way. Well, more than once. For example, I felt that way last February, about this time. I also felt that way about five minutes ago, when I remembered, among other things, that I was supposed to have written and submitted this article yesterday. Oops. But now that I'm in the middle of it, I'm feeling a bit calmer. This calm is subject to change at any moment, true, but at least for now, the words, they have a way of finding their way onto the page. Hopefully they arrive in some sort of coherent pattern. But that is a judgment you, dear reader, are better qualified to make than I.

Anyway. To the topic at hand! Note that what now follows will sound like a digression, but it is not.

So, not so very long ago, when the weather was still hot and humid and you were dealing with the shock of having purchased your first crateful of casebooks and supplements (as well as that paperback copy of Black's Law Dictionary-the one the bookstore worker helpfully dropped into your crate-that you have not consulted since the second week of September), you were herded into the Cloyd Heck Marvin Center or some other such large building with a theatre or lecture hall large enough to accommodate you and several hundred of your soon-to-be-closest-friends-and-bitterest-enemies. In this large room, a succession of important persons got up and addressed sundry remarks to you. You listened, you laughed, you learned, you went to the reception afterward and weren't sure where to put your crate, which was a problem as you needed free hands in order to enjoy the hors d'oeuvres.

Me, I remember some of that, except for the part about the crate, because I tend to procrastinate on textbook purchases. I'm not proud, just honest. I do remember the appetizers. Mmm, pepper jack cheese cubes. But, admittedly, apart from the fire-and-brimstone ethics sermon, I don't remember many of the remarks that day-except for one. I do not remember who said it, but the speaker was a He, and was probably, but not necessarily, a Dean. I probably have also forgotten the exact wording of the remark, but it was something like this: "Don't sweat the details."

I don't know if that's a set piece for each orientation, but it should be. In fact, it would be nice if each incoming student got a plaque with that comment on it. It is a true nugget of wisdom, as evidenced by the fact that, like most wise sayings, it has more than one meaning. I can think of two, but both assuredly are things all of us, as Type-A, detail-oriented persons, ought to reflect on.

On the one hand, there's the meaning that speaker from orientations long passed was trying to convey: don't postpone dealing with the details. Fair enough. You and I may be detail-oriented, but that doesn't mean we aren't also procrastinators. See generally my decade-long history of the occasional all-nighter. So pay your damn bills the day you get them, etc.

On the other-and, in my opinion, the more interesting-hand, there's the idea that you shouldn't let the details dominate your field of vision to the exclusion of the larger picture. By now, you've likely had the experience of going down the rabbit hole: you started writing an exam essay, got hung up on some detail involving the Rule Against Perpetuities, wasted all your time there, and then either (1) had a panic attack with 10 minutes remaining in the exam upon realization of what you had done, or (2) had a panic attack 10 minutes after the exam when you heard your friends talking about that particular question. Either way, you had trouble breathing for a minute there.

We've all been there, and will probably go there again. To an extent getting bogged down in the details is what we do here (and, arguably, what we are here to do). At the same time, it is advisable to try to keep one eye on the bigger picture. This applies not just to your Property exam, but to your daily interactions. Personally, few things make me sadder than hearing detailed conversations about Trusts and Estates when two friends run into each other on Monday morning. Certainly we have more to talk about than school. Certainly we have more in common than this. Here's hoping, anyway.