There is No In-Between.

Something I haven't been quite able to figure out since entering law school and the legal profession in general,

It's been my general experience, since I was a child, that anything I applied myself to I could accomplish. Not just accomplish, but excel at. Even reach the top. There was never anything, back then, that I could not mentally grasp. Granted, I'm talking about small matters here (since I never endeavored to tackle anything world class). Still, though, for purposes of what I'm about to say, it doesn't matter.

Since entering law school and working within the intensely competitive upper echelon of the legal profession, however, I am continuously taken aback at the degree of (albeit academic) intelligence I encounter in so many individuals on a daily basis. Law school and the legal profession are the first places where I can honestly say that, regardless of the concept put forth to us, virtually everyone I am surrounded by will, at a minimum, understand it. Instantly. Some will even master it. All in less time than it takes me to read the matter to begin with.

My point in all of this is simply that I'm curious, or rather, I can't figure out--where is the in-between? The first twenty-nine years of my life I spent coasting past my peers in virtually every activity I participated in, be it professional, academic, or otherwise. Whether it was school, the military, my civilian jobs, etc., there was basically no limit, within reason, to how far I could have traveled within those spheres. Since entering law school, however, it's taken everything I have to not be steamrolled over by my younger and apparently more-naturally-gifted classmates and colleagues. Where were all of these incredibly intelligent individuals for the first twenty-eight years of my life? And where are all the mediocre intellects now that I am in law school? It's as though I've gone from 0 to 100 in just a few seconds, and there doesn't appear to be any possibility of slowing down in the near future. All I can say is, I'm tired, and looking forward to the end either way. $120k/yr starting sounds great, but not if I wind up losing my sanity in the process.