I object to your objection

It is finals season once again. My brain is operating in overdrive, my motivation level is hovering around nonexistent, and my temper is extraordinarily short. And I'm not the only one. It's a vicious time of the semester. Not exactly the best time to ask a fellow student for a favor. I'm taking a deposition skills training class this semester, and as part of the curriculum we each have to conduct two depositions, one of a lay witness and one of an expert witness. I asked a former co-worker to be my "lay witness" for the first deposition which took place a month ago. Though the fact pattern was fairly straight forward, it was a harrowing two hours for my witness. I felt awful for suckering her into agreeing to portray a sleazy character, be quizzed on things she didn't really know, and be subjected to brutal cross by a shark in training. I simply didn't have the heart to ask my (former?)friend to agree to another pummeling as an "expert witness". To be quite honest, I didn't have the heart to ask any of my classmates to be my expert witness because it's just too close to finals. A week before exams? My heavens no. I didn't even feel like I had time to pull this one off. People have tons going on, the expert witness fact pattern was complex and convoluted, and I knew anyone I might ask would be even less enthusiastic about learning it than I was. The economic analysis of my fake expert witness was enough to raise the spectre of Kearle and cause me to whimper in fear. But I still had to conduct the deposition. Which meant I had to ask someone to voluntarily place his or herself on the altar of academic indignity to be sacrificed in an intellectual slaughter. Yeah right like anyone volunteers for that. So naturally I asked the only person I knew that would accept the challenge and still care to talk to me afterwards. Some married folks might say that they know their spouses love them because they verbalize it, or because they're faithful, or because they put the toilet seat down. I would posit that the true measure of one's devotion is a willingness to be subjected to a mock deposition as an expert witness. Scott is truly a rock star. I'm sure the entire time he was thinking, "What in the world? Friends don't let friends be mock expert witnesses. How could she do this to me? I don't know the law. I can't answer these questions. What am I even doing here?" And yet he managed to hold his own against a very frazzled, self-proclaimed overly aggressive criminal defense lawyer in embryo, and he did so with style and aplomb. He never complains when I obligate him to accompany me to law school social functions. He never whines about my excessive studying. He never asks me to take a break from my incessant anti-law school tirades, but never lets me quit. And he never lets me down when I need him most. That is love.