Lately, law school feels like I am slowly emerging from the eye of a storm, armed with the certainty of its chaotic whirlwinds but anxious about how I will forge a path through it. As a 1L, the uptick in unfamiliar networking events and professional panels amidst the first-time memos and midterms makes the near future seem especially tumultuous. Many of my classmates surely feel the same. While I cannot stop the inevitability of our chaotic law school eras, I can offer some existential insight on navigating them based on my conveniently related interest in the butterfly effect.
The butterfly effect stems from the scientific study of chaos theory, which explains limitations to predictions in dynamic systems seemingly governed by deterministic laws. It captures how small changes in initial conditions within one area of a dynamic system can result in substantial effects in another. Explained metaphorically, this means that the mere flap of wings from a butterfly in one area of the world could cause a tornado elsewhere—or it could not.
Applied in a law school context, where academic and professional outcomes are assumed to be caused by predictable and controllable actions around grades, strategic networking, and other factors, the butterfly effect challenges us to examine how seemingly small decisions may be critical to those outcomes.
Attending a lunch panel on a whim could be the key to your summer job. Entering a student-run competition for fun could mean meeting a critical career mentor. Noticing a classmate you do not know has missed class–and offering them your notes–could make a lasting impression on a professor who later helps you secure a job (even when you miss the interview–true story). In other words, small decisions at face value can make all the difference in actualizing our bigger goals.
In addition to disrupting our sense of control over our journeys as law students, the butterfly effect can empower us to take some pressure off those colloquially deterministic components of our law school experiences. Why stress over the stereotypically big stuff when the small stuff can be just as crucial to our desired outcomes?
Of course, this does not mean that we should take performing well in classes or impressing at networking events for granted. They do matter in the grand scheme of things. In addition to their importance in the pipeline of professional success for many, they teach us how to navigate the impactful nature of the legal profession.
After all, many of us came to BC Law because we wanted to learn and effectively wield legal knowledge in powerful ways to affect society. We wanted to embody the bold and powerful symbolism of the eagle (BC’s mascot), whose force in their environment is often foreseeable and deterministic.
Nonetheless, the beauty of the butterfly effect does not lie in emphasizing foreseeable, deterministic forces in the world, so why bring it up to law students who want to control their own futures? It turns out that, according to the butterfly effect, an eagle flapping its wings in one area could cause profound weather consequences in the atmosphere elsewhere—or it could not. Thus, even the powerful eagle is not immune to unpredictability in chaos theory.
Given the paradoxical tensions of deterministic chaos, we should embrace the dual nature of the eagle and butterfly. By embracing both as law students, we can fully appreciate the inherent value we bring to all law school experiences, regardless of how powerful we are presumed to be throughout them. We can also understand that no matter how predictable or unpredictable things get, the unique essence of who we are will remain in all the paths we take, inevitably imprinting on others in small and large ways.
So, if you are like me and find the prospect of navigating law school chaos anxiety-inducing, let authenticity be your anchor as the chaotic winds of law school pull you in different directions. Choose experiences because you genuinely believe they will be productive for you or others, not merely because the seemingly deterministic rules governing law school prescribe them. Find comfort in the unique effects of your wings as you endure the storm as both an eagle and butterfly.
Malcolm Baytop is a first-year student at BC Law. Contact him at baytop@bc.edu.
BC Law: Impact 