Well, it came and went . . . all too fast, if you ask me. While I did manage to go home for the joyous holiday, I sadly spent most of my time in front of my computer screen . . . outlining. I think I talked to my friends from home more over gmail chat, facebook chat, and skype than face-to-face. I went out one night — and by “go out” I mean, I had a bunch of wine and beer on Thanksgiving Day, when I only outlined and studied for 2-3 hours during the morning before the actual meal. That’s as opposed to the 5-6 hours (maybe even more some days) that I spent otherwise. So, as you can see, Thanksgiving break pretty much sucked for me. The good news is: I’m just about all done outlining for both my exams coming up, which may be more than some can say at this point. All in all, I should be looking forward to a lighter workload for the next couple of days, until I decide to take some practice exams. Then those will fill my days.

Other good news: I realized that elements isn’t necessarily that terribly confusing now looking back on it. I think what happened was I got so carried away typing away like mad during class, that I was not able to stop and think about the actual lessons behind each class session. In going back over all the principles taught, I was able to comprehend many (most?) of them and am feeling a bit more confident because of that. Some of the more complicated economics-based principles elude me still, but that’s ok, I nonetheless feel a TON better about this class that previously had me wanting to hide in a hole and never come out (or maybe just move the Trinidad and open up a bicycle rental shop).

So with all this exam craziness circling, I also envision a world where I am able to send out a decent amount of resumes, cover letters, writing samples, etc., in hopes of finding a job this coming summer. Not sure how this will pan out and things are looking dimmer than I might have first hoped since some of my contacts/ties in big firms (possibly Biglaw firms, not sure where the distinction is from “Biglaw” to “Midlaw” or whatever) have basically said: “Come back next year.”

All in all, law school seems to be a cycle of stress, at least for me. I either seem way behind or I seem a little bit ahead . . . and when I’m ahead I can’t help but thinking there’s something more I could be doing (hornbooks, E&Es, treatises, etc.) to push myself over the top. After all, I was never really one of those kids that was able to go into an exam and just ace it; quite the opposite actually. I often had to put in more work than most, but also ended up with higher grades than most. Here, everyone is just crazy smart and so I fear (and probably expect) that all this intense amount of work is necessary just to keep my head above water. But I’ll let you know after exams come back.