What's the Deal, Heather Steele?
Disproportionate Reactions
Heather Steele
Issue date: 10/4/05 Section: Columns
By Heather Steele
Docket Senior Editor
The other day, I was just innocently driving down the Dulles toll road, away from work and toward school, when a crazed driver in front of me started randomly braking. At first, I assumed he was doing this because the toll booths were coming up, but with the way he was stomping so violently on the brakes, I wondered if he was having some sort of seizure behind the wheel.
Since I didn't want to end my life in a fiery car crash, I slowed down even more and added about two car-lengths of space between this guy's car and mine. But the stomping on the brakes continued.
Curious as to the nature of this driver's affliction, I switched lanes and drove up next to him. As I tried to glance discreetly over at the driver to check for foaming at the mouth, what do I receive in return for my good-natured compassion? Nothing less than that famously polite gesture which angry drivers are so prone to use. Apparently my new highway comrade thought that I'd been tailgating him, and felt the need to communicate this point of view by his spastic braking and wild gesturing.
I think he saw me laughing at him. Which probably made him even angrier, provoking a second hand full of gestures. All I could think as I drove awaywas, "What an incredibly disproportionate reaction!"
I've recently decided that I'm not a fan of disproportionate reactions. Which is why I've also decided that I'm not too worried about that growing stack of rejection letters on my kitchen counter. A disproportionate reaction would be to scream, shout, cry, sit in a dark corner, or drop out of law school. All of these are very tiring and time-consuming activities. And we, as law students, certainly don't have a lot of extra time.
Thus, I've been thinking lately about proportionate reactions - or at least, reactions that keep my chin up through this semester. The second year provides lots of fodder for reacting in a disproportionately negative way: heavy workloads, writing deadlines, and rejection letters, just to name a few. So I'd like to offer you a few possibilities for lighter, calmer reactions to the adversities of the second year:
Docket Senior Editor
The other day, I was just innocently driving down the Dulles toll road, away from work and toward school, when a crazed driver in front of me started randomly braking. At first, I assumed he was doing this because the toll booths were coming up, but with the way he was stomping so violently on the brakes, I wondered if he was having some sort of seizure behind the wheel.
Since I didn't want to end my life in a fiery car crash, I slowed down even more and added about two car-lengths of space between this guy's car and mine. But the stomping on the brakes continued.
Curious as to the nature of this driver's affliction, I switched lanes and drove up next to him. As I tried to glance discreetly over at the driver to check for foaming at the mouth, what do I receive in return for my good-natured compassion? Nothing less than that famously polite gesture which angry drivers are so prone to use. Apparently my new highway comrade thought that I'd been tailgating him, and felt the need to communicate this point of view by his spastic braking and wild gesturing.
I think he saw me laughing at him. Which probably made him even angrier, provoking a second hand full of gestures. All I could think as I drove awaywas, "What an incredibly disproportionate reaction!"
I've recently decided that I'm not a fan of disproportionate reactions. Which is why I've also decided that I'm not too worried about that growing stack of rejection letters on my kitchen counter. A disproportionate reaction would be to scream, shout, cry, sit in a dark corner, or drop out of law school. All of these are very tiring and time-consuming activities. And we, as law students, certainly don't have a lot of extra time.
Thus, I've been thinking lately about proportionate reactions - or at least, reactions that keep my chin up through this semester. The second year provides lots of fodder for reacting in a disproportionately negative way: heavy workloads, writing deadlines, and rejection letters, just to name a few. So I'd like to offer you a few possibilities for lighter, calmer reactions to the adversities of the second year: