Throughout my first year of law school, I continually sparred with a certain guy in my class over sexual assault. Whenever a sexual assault case came up in class (be in Tort or Criminal Law), he would always pipe up with some version of "sexual assault is not a big deal." Invariably, I would raise my hand and make the case for why sex without consent was an assault. A physical assault on a human being. By the end of first year, I thought he would give in or at least not make any more infuriating comments, but he always did. At the party marking the end of first year, I told him over a beer how deeply his comments had upset me but he just shrugged.
Cut to yesterday. We are both now in third year and have had very little contact with each other other than both being executives in student goverment. So, we are eating lunch in our office, waiting for a meeting to begin when he tells me that he wants me to know he has changed a lot since first year. He didn't elaborate, and there were many people in the room that weren't privy to what he meant, but I was elated. I never expected him to say anything concillitory, much less for him to bring up the issue himself--albeit in a roundabout way.
It was a really great little moment.
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