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Hi, what is the meaning of "the top half " and "as if life were passing him by"in the following text?

The job was his third since graduating in the top half of his class at Georgetown University Law school. He had started his career working for a big company in New York where he'd had an office with view and made handsome salary. But after six years there, he'd felt as if life were passing him by.

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Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Anonymous the top half of his class

the upper 50% academically

Anonymousas if life were passing him by

as if he were making no personal progress, as if he were not able to enjoy life fully

Anonymous · Answer

To comment further on this, Georgetown is one of the highly regarded law schools, so being in the upper 50% of the graduating class - although this is not, say, the top 1% - would still be okay with employers. "An office with a view" is a desirable thing, that is, it's not just an anonymous cubby hole somewhere in the building. And working for a big New York City law firm or company would be considered desirable.

But this all kind of comes to a head with the phrase "as if life were passing him by." What is implied here is that there was a reason for his less-than-scintillating performance in law school: he doesn't have what it takes to be one of the elite of lawyers, and his job is essentially a mind-numbing 9-5 grind.

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