t14

Adios Kiddies

Chicago_1L — Mon, 24 May 2010 11:36:31 +0000

Well, it’s been a fun year y’all. Things are winding down piece by piece. First Legal Writing got pretty much done with turning in the brief. That assignment definitely sucked. Then Legal Writing got officially all finished up with completing the oral argument and getting my brief back (which I did better on than I did on the winter memo … that’s not saying much – at all – but still nice to know I’m improving in that field). Now this blog is done, so I can officially check off another 1L obligation from the list of “to-dos.”

As for updates, I got relatively ahead in terms of outlining so I decided to take the weekend off. I only worked for about a half a day on Saturday. The rest of the time, I made sure to avoid any: a) work, b) law school-related topics, c) law school-related people. So I’ve been a little MIA over the past few days, which has been sooooooooo nice. Seriously, people get so worked up around finals that I just need to take a break (especially 2-3 in particular I can’t avoid more and who constantly stress other people out to try to maybe bring us all down with them or something).

Other things to note, immediately after our fourth and final exam (property), we get our writing competition assignment. Damn. So that gets to put another 2-week damper in my summer. It actually sucks a lot. Like 2 days after that last final, I leave to go to the city I’m living in this summer and then start work two days after that. UChicago is really sticking to its guns with the whole quarter system despite all its ridiculous flaws. Anyway, not sure the positives of the system outweigh the negatives, at least from a student’s perspective.

I met a couple older non-UChicago law students this weekend (just by chance, which was lame since I was trying to avoid all things law) and they were like, “If you don’t make law review, you’re screwed.” I didn’t say what I thought at the time out loud back to them but it would have gone something like this: “Thanks for the advice. I’ve never heard anyone say ‘You should try to get on law review’ before. Truly unique and inspiring words of wisdom. I’m not trying really hard to get on it or anything. Oh, and by the way, where did you go to school again? Yeah, probably nowhere nearly as competitive to get on it as UChicago. Ok, see ya.” I’m bitter, whatevs.

In other news, the 1Ls just had our lottery for the clinics. I was selected very highly on one of the projects I heard was really interesting (from one of my friends’ experiences in working there) and decently highly on another I hadn’t heard anything about but that looked pretty interesting. So if the journal thing falls through next year, I suppose I’ll have that to fall back on. I don’t think I would want to do both. After all, once these last 1L exams are done, if law school ever started for me (as in, if I ever cared about it), at that point it will most decidedly be over for me. I’m checkin out y’all.

Peace!

Things I Learned in Law School

Soleil — Sat, 22 May 2010 00:19:59 +0000

It’s hard to believe it’s been a whole year since I began documenting this journey here on T14. Today that journey comes to a close. Exams are done and I just handed in the last of my journal applications. 1L is officially over and so is my time here. At this point in the year, most law school hopefuls have decided where they’re off to in the fall and for my last post, I wanted to leave you with a few things I learned along the way.

Have friends outside of law school. I can’t tell you how important having non-law school friends was to me during 1L. It was easy for me because I lived in New York before starting school. Many people move to new cities for law school and the only people they meet are the ones in their classes that they see day in and day out. Try not to live in such an insular world. Non-law school friends keep you grounded and remind you that there is life outside law school. And when you’re with them, there is no pressure to talk about exams or the professor or the cases because they’ll have absolutely no tolerance for that kind of talk. It’s refreshing and you’ll need it from time to time.
Find a study space that works for you. I didn’t realize how anal I was about things until I started law school. I couldn’t get a stitch of work done unless I was completely comfortable in my surroundings. I struggled a lot to find the perfect study space. At first I assumed that this space would be in the law library. After all, in college, I used to love to sprawl out in a study carrel and make a day of it. But in college I could leave my computer and things on a desk in the library, disappear for an hour or two to eat, and everything would be as I left it when I returned. Things are a little bit different in law school. Or in New York. Or really anywhere that isn’t Wellesley, Massachusetts. I gave the law library a shot one afternoon, but with people crackling their papers and loudly whispering and tap tap tapping on their laptops, I gave up. Ironically, I ended up getting the most work done at my neighborhood Starbucks. The hum of the café was more like white noise than a distraction and I adapted to it easily. I’m one of those freaks who can’t sleep without some background noise. Which brings me to my next point.
Invest in a good quality bed. Sleep can be difficult to come by in law school. I never had more trouble sleeping in all of my life (with the possible exception of my first year of life…well maybe the first couple years of life…my mom says I was a difficult child in this regard…and that that’s why I’m an only child…oh well, moving on…) than I did this year. Don’t settle for a cheap hand-me-down mattress (ew) and for the love of God, don’t think you can sleep for a whole year on a futon. You’re in this for the long haul — get a decent bed.
Eat well and exercise. There’s every reason in the world to let your health fall by the wayside during 1L. You’re stressed, you have no time, when you do have time you want to spend it sleeping or hanging out. But I swear, if you take care of your body, it’ll be much harder for the stress to tear you down. And getting sick is an absolute nightmare in law school. It isn’t worth it.
Above all, stay true to yourself and know what you want. All right, fine, it sounds kind of corny, but I mean it. In law school – especially at my law school – it’s easy to get caught up in the general air of smugness permeating the student body. People start to think they’re much more important than they really are. Give them a few A’s and a prestigious firm job and they think they rule the world. If you came to law school with a certain goal in mind, hold onto it and don’t let anyone try to make you feel bad about it. It’s kind of strange how the most honorable legal work has the poorest reputation at certain law schools and it would be easy to give in to the hype. Fortunately for me, I’m a bit older than most of my classmates and I came to law school knowing exactly what I want to do with my law degree. Most people go into law school with no clue. Be patient with them, but don’t feel as though you need to justify yourself. A strong sense of self is absolutely key to saving your sanity in the first year of law school.

Well, that’s that. I hope you enjoyed reading about my year in law school. I’ve enjoyed writing about it most of the time, but I’m kind of glad to be done. Sometimes law school felt as though it had sucked out my soul and the last thing in the world I wanted to do was write about it. So thanks for your patience. I’ve got myself a new blogging gig that has nothing whatsoever to do with law school or the law in general and I’m looking forward to the next step.

Take care,
Soleil ☺

Winding down/up

Chicago_1L — Thu, 20 May 2010 10:59:27 +0000

Well, now two of the six things our class had to turn in/complete for this quarter are out of the way. Everyone finished up with oral arguments yesterday. I won’t spend too much time describing them, first, since Soleil has already done so and, second, since it was really no big deal. I’m not sure how it is for other classes, but ours was not graded, so not too many people took it that seriously or prepared that diligently for it. Considering I don’t care that much even when grades ARE on the line, you can imagine how I felt about this assignment. I probably spent 3-4 hours printing out the cases I used and highlighting major points. Never got a chance to practice questions or how to convince people, say, through like a mock session with a friend. It definitely showed. I was unsure of myself and paused and stuttered a low, which was upsetting as I generally consider myself a pretty good public speaker. Again, chalk it up to lack of preparation.

Now that that’s over, the last thing on our plate, and it seems the last thing on everyone’s mind, are finals. This quarter is curious in relation to past quarters. Maybe those with median grades have generally accepted their middle-of-the-roadness or maybe everyone just has finally come to the dark side of apathy where I live. In any case, people seem much more relaxed/indifferent this time around. We are only a couple weeks out and there are a bunch of people I know who just have not outlined at all yet — either that are they are very far behind where I would expect most people to be either because they 1) don’t care, or 2) don’t realize how much more work we have this quarter in comparison to last. As for me, I’m hoping to finish up my outlines sometime in the middle of next week and spend the rest of the time doing what I do after that: reading through hornbooks/E&Es and doing practice problems (especially for classes I don’t really understand, like the second half of torts).

In the end, I’m hoping for similar results as last quarter, but I won’t be disappointed if I don’t get there. I did pretty well last quarter with an A and one point away from an A and, as I’ve said many times, I’ll credit luck for that. Nonetheless, about this time last quarter, I had not learned a thing about remedies for contracts and managed to squeeze and entire quarter’s worth of learning into about 2.5 days of hardcore, no-holds-barred treatise reading …. so maybe some kind of magic will happen again to make me both very happy and more convince that this whole law school thing is just a big joke.

Other than that, things are generally good. Since people are caring less (like me) there is a less stressed air about the law school and people seem to be freaking out less. So that’s nice. Granted, there are 2-3 people in our class that are typically known to freak out whenever anything (however small or insignificant) is due. They’re nice people most of the time, but I try (and I think most people try) to avoid them during these due date times — otherwise, you’ll get either way stressed out through some kind of emotional osmosis or they’ll yell at you for not being more stressed out or for making fun of them for being so stressed (but, of course, if you can’t laugh at yourself, your sense of humor probably isn’t that great anyway so I probably don’t want to hang out with you in any case).

Whatever, one more post to come. Hope you all enjoyed the depressing life of a 1L. You get used to it after a few weeks, but god I hope there’s something better waiting for me in the next few years.

Jury Duty (Or: How I Almost Began My Legal Career In Contempt Of Court For Being Horribly Late For Jury Duty)

Soleil — Wed, 19 May 2010 21:42:51 +0000

So whenever I venture below 14th Street, I always take my Manhattan street map with me. Good navigational sense is not one of my gifts. If it isn’t on a grid, I will be lost in less time than it takes to re-heat a pizza. I show up early to the courthouse on Thomas Street and settle in with my writing competition packet and begin reading as I wait for instructions. Finally, the juror wrangler comes in and directs us to look at our summons and make sure we’re there on the right day. I laugh inwardly that anyone could be so dumb as to show up on the wrong day for service. Then he tells us to make sure we’re at the right courthouse. I ignore this order as well. I remembered back to the night before when I looked at the box on the summons with the heading “Directions to your jury room.” I punched in the address of the courthouse on Google Maps for good measure. I was definitely in the right place.

(You know where this is going right?)

So then he repeats the instructions for the late-comers and I decide, what the hell, I’ll take a look at the summons.

“You are instructed to report to 60 Centre Street.”

I am at 71 Thomas Street.

Oh, hell.

So I gather my things and head for the back of the room passing rows of correctly-placed jurors because I just had to sit in the front. My face burned because I knew what they were thinking. I had gotten up right after he told us to make sure we weren’t at the wrong courthouse so it was obvious I was in the wrong place. I didn’t look at anyone’s face as I ran past security and out onto the street.

“60 Centre Street?!” I half asked, half shouted at the cop on the street corner. He said make two rights and walk four blocks and I’d be right there. As soon as I was around the corner I’d forgotten what he said. I consulted my street map and figured out that I should be heading west from where I was. I immediately started walking east. By the time I figured out that West Broadway and Broadway weren’t the same thing (I hate downtown), I gave up and hailed a cab. Seven dollars later and I’m two courthouses down from the correct one. (Seriously, New York? No fewer than four courthouses in the same vicinity?)

I recognized this courthouse immediately as the one Alexandra Cabot is always heading down as she rejects plea offers from defense attorneys. But I had no time to admire it as I was ridiculously late. So I get through security and find my way to the fourth floor jury room. The Welcome to Jury Duty movie has already begun so I dropped my things, collapsed into a chair, and listened to Diane Sawyer tell me about the important role I was about to play in our justice system. The movie was in dire need of an update; when Ms. Sawyer told us about litigation in popular culture, the screen switched to a clip from Perry Mason. Yeah, I’m not sure who he is either, but judging by the glasses and haircuts, I’m going to guess he was the Sam Waterston of the 70s.

Anyway. So after the movie was finished there was a lot of waiting around. Then the juror wrangler took attendance. There was more waiting around. Then she called off a bunch of names including mine and sent us off to Room A where we were to be questioned by some attorneys. There were about 30 of us in the room but they said they were only going to question the first 16 and only question the rest of us if they couldn’t find a suitable jury among the first group.

Since I wasn’t picked (and wasn’t even questioned) I can tell you that the case was a civil suit being filed by Linda Stasi against the city. Apparently she tripped over a police barricade a few years ago. I hadn’t heard of her. I thought it was strange that she was in the room with her attorney and the city’s attorney while the jury selection was going on. She didn’t say much. (Although she did tell the city’s attorney how to pronounce her last name – something her own attorney was doing incorrectly.)

After they selected their jury, I was free to go. I went back for my second day of service and was dismissed by noon. Even though I did nothing but wait around, it was not all for naught. I discovered that the lunch place across from the courthouse stocked Coke Zero Vanilla! So on my way home, I bought a bunch of cans of the stuff and schlepped them back uptown. I’ve been absolutely wired for the past 12 hours, but it’s worth it. Coke Zero Vanilla!

I know last time I said that my next post would be my last, but I feel like I should end on a more meaningful note than my newfound love affair with Coke Zero Vanilla.

So stay tuned.

DONE!

Soleil — Fri, 14 May 2010 02:08:37 +0000

…With exams that is. The week-long writing competition to get on a journal starts tomorrow. But wow, what a relief to be finished with exams! I apologize in advance for this post – I’m no longer capable of higher brain function. The last bit of brain power I had went into my last exam which I finished early this evening.

Exams went pretty well, apart from some minor technical difficulties that lasted for a few panic-stricken minutes. About an hour after finishing my con law exam, I got an email saying the exam file did not upload successfully. But that panic didn’t even come close to how I felt during my property exam when my netbook decided it didn’t feel like loading the exam software. They started the exam without me and then I had proctors trying to help me re-download the exam and re-run the program. I was terrified they were going to tell me I would have to hand-write the exam. That really would have been the end of the world as I knew it. There would be no way I could write a coherent exam by hand. I would fail for sure. But fortunately, my computer got over its bout with PMS and decided to work third time around. They gave me compensatory time so it didn’t even matter in the end.

It really feels incredible to be done with 1L. It went by ridiculously fast. I can remember one year ago looking at the glossy brochure that came in the admission packet. Every now and then I would flip to the last page and stare at the fresh-faced CLS grads decked out in their blue robes looking happy and accomplished. I couldn’t wait till that day. I still can’t. But now instead of it being three years away, it’s only two.

But since I just finished exams only today and haven’t really had time to adequately reflect, I’ll save the deep and meaningful reflection for my next – and final! – post.

I have jury duty next week. I postponed it once already so there’s no getting out of it this time. The last time I was called I was living in Massachusetts and I think it was really close to finals then too. I got out of it by telling them I had family members who were in law enforcement. Hopefully that works this time around too. I actually think I would really like to do jury duty, but it never seems to come at a convenient time, does it?

After the writing competition is over, I have one whole week of vacation before starting my internship. I’m not going anywhere, but there’s plenty to do in the city. Item number one is to repair all the friendships that have suffered as a result of my falling off the face of the planet for the month of May. So many calls have gone unreturned and emails unanswered. Most of my friends are not law school people so they don’t really understand what I was going through. As readers here know, law school exams are unlike anything and if you’ve never experienced them you can’t really understand. So I didn’t really bother to try to explain. I just let them know I’d be off the map until late May.

Congratulations to everyone who finished 1L. ☺

Some Advice

Chicago_1L — Sun, 09 May 2010 02:23:51 +0000

Well, the end of the year is coming and I figured, in case there are any 0Ls still out there paying attention to this blog, I’d post a few of my penultimate conclusions/advice/guidance for all those coming in to law school.

1) work hard. It sounds pretty dumb and maybe even a given in law school. But, to me, 1L year is definitely more of a marathon than a sprint. The problem with 1L year is, you have to be ready to sprint for 24 miles (or however long a marathon is). Maybe I’ve been able to stay up in grades (other than dumb luck …. again, crossing my fingers to keep that lucky streak rolling) because I work pretty hard. There is some advice out there that says, forget about cases, read the outlines/E&Es/hornbooks and learn the black letter law; then learn how to apply it through practice tests.

Overall, that’s pretty good advice. Learning the cases almost doesn’t matter …. almost. But I’ve found students get so wrapped up (especially in the beginning of the year and even this late into the year) in performing when getting called on in class or presenting some novel argument about a particular case’s reasoning, that they get lost in the fray and, come exam time, they are unable to decipher what law to apply where. However, while, as I said, the cases mean ALMOST nothing, there are times on the exam where it is apparent the professor wants you to make factual or analogical comparisons between a hypo and a case previously studied. This is really the only time that cases come in handy and where maybe idiosyncratic reasoning (or even policy arguments) in a case will be relevant.

So, my strategy, so far, has been the following: read the cases during the week and make sure to stay on top of the reading week-by-week (getting behind is the worst feeling ever and always seems to take more time to get back on track than it should). Once I’m on top of the reading, I’ll dedicate all other remaining time to 1) writing assignments when I have them (memos, brief); or 2) outlining. Ideally, the goal is to be completely done outlining at least by the time classes are over for the quarter. The rest of the time between the end of classes and exams is dedicated to (where I haven’t done so beforehand) skimming through E&Es and hornbooks to make sure I: 1) have a handle on some concepts I might not understand (like the entire second half of contracts last quarter); and 2) do tons and tons more practice problems than are available through professors’ past exams and such. So, in short, work hard.

2) think intelligently during exams. This one also sounds dumb, but it might be the only other reason (besides advice point #1 and obscene good luck) that I’ve been doing so decent in school. Take the point of view of a law professor, they don’t want to give you some fact pattern that will be a straight application of some legal doctrine. That would be: 1) too easy (so the curve would be ridiculous); and 2) boring for them. Instead, recognize that they are providing you with a fact pattern that lies between these rules. I think one of the best things to do on an exam is find HOW and WHY the fact pattern does not fit perfectly into one rule or another and then argue both ways (that it does or does not fit under the rule) using details and specifics and intricacies in the fact pattern. After all, every fact is put into this exam for a specific, and often well-thought-out, reason. I try to find that reason and make sure I address it appropriately. Red herrings in these question stems are usually pretty easy to figure out and dismiss and I sometimes hope to find specifics in the facts the professor may have glanced over or not realized it was as important as it may be to the question she/he poses. That’s a good way to stand out and perhaps be rewarded when it comes to grading.

Anyway, hope that makes some sense. Off to outline.

Halfway Point

Soleil — Sat, 08 May 2010 19:06:31 +0000

Two exams down, two more to go.

I came out of the con law exam feeling spent but pretty good overall. Ever take an exam and have one of those moments where you map out your whole answer, feel awesome about it, and then realize – oh holy crap, I completely forgot this Incredibly Important Thing? Yeah, I had one of those. At first it was like – whew! That was a close one! Then it was like – well, Jesus – if I had forgotten THAT, I’d be fast-tracking it to C+ land. And then it was like – well what the hell else am I forgetting??

Crim law was a different story altogether. I had certain expectations going into the exam, which was probably my first mistake. Based on the past exams I thought I had an idea of what to expect, but I was wrong. The questions weren’t exactly unfamiliar, but I expected the layout of the exam itself to be different. What’s more, there wasn’t a suggested time limit for each question, which threw me for a bit of a loop. It has been my experience so far that professors generally put suggested time limits for each question and that signals which questions are weighted more heavily than others and thus where you should spend the bulk of your time. Without time limits, I can only assume the questions are weighted equally which terrifies me a bit considering I spent way more time analyzing two questions than I spent on the other. They also had more parts so I find it hard to believe each question could possibly be weighted the same.

I walked out of that exam feeling completely and utterly spent. I walked back home practically zombified. My mind was blank and I felt incapable of higher thought. I got into my apartment and sat down at my computer and couldn’t really remember the walk back from school.

I hadn’t planned to, hadn’t wanted to, but I ended up taking the night off and curled up in bed watching a few stupid movies.

My approach to exams this semester is the exact opposite of what I did last semester. Last semester I was attentive and present and engaged in classes and by the time finals rolled around, I wasted a lot of time and didn’t study very hard. This semester I tried the opposite approach. I skipped a lot of class, hardly ever volunteered, and kept up with the reading in only half my classes. But now that exam time is here, I am studying my brains out. Literally.

I’m completely isolated. I hate studying at the law school (I know, I’m a broken record on this point) so now that I have my air conditioner installed (thanks Dad!) I’ve been holed up in my apartment for days on end emerging only to take an exam or print something. I made a bunch of food before classes ended and subsisted on that, but now my fridge is running on empty. I’ve tapped into the emergency rations – canned soap, oatmeal, and a box of raisins I didn’t know I had. I’m out of soda except for a half a bottle of Diet Stewart’s Root Beer, which I’m saving for when I need a jolt of caffeine-infused happiness.

But it’s almost over. I can see the end in sight.

The Home Stretch

Chicago_1L — Mon, 03 May 2010 13:47:05 +0000

So, now that the brief is in, which was the worst thing of my life by the way, the only thing between me and the end of 1L year (and, therefore, the end of caring even marginally about law school … if I still care at all) is just about a month away. Only 4 more exams and that’s it. Granted, this will be by far the hardest and most stressful quarter ever — I have just as many exams as I did over the first two quarters combined. For some reason, the school has found it a good idea to focus more than half of our entire 1L grade in the final 10 or 11 weeks or whatever of school. So that sucks for me, but whatevs.

In other news, this past weekend was a blast. Since everyone turned in the brief, we all decided it was time to take a brief (haha) hiatus from working on law school and go out and have some fun. Bar review was pretty amazingly fun and it was nice to see people come out of their shell a little bit just before buckling down one last time to deal with the hazing that is 1L year. Plus, next weekend is Law School Prom, which is going to be amazing. My girlfriend couldn’t make it out, since the event was not very brightly planned on the same weekend as Mother’s Day, but I managed to find myself a plutonic date for the evening (or, she managed to find me). Speaking of my girlfriend, things are progressing pretty well. We’ve been talking pretty much every day and I think things are starting to get pretty serious, which is both kinda scary and kinda exciting all at the same time. Considering she still lives very far away, we’ll have to see where things go from here, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see her out here in Chicago sometime in the not so distant future.

Let’s see ….. we also have some kind of training coming up from the Career Services Office about the Fall OCI. To be honest, I think it’s going to be a huge waste of time (the training, not OCI). I think I’m more partial to the advice I’ve been given by 2Ls and 3Ls instead of the Career Services people. Many of them seem like they are just there to placate students and make them feel like everything is going to be all right. It’s not their fault. Prior to this economic downturn, they didn’t have to do much of anything. Now that things are tough, it definitely seems like they’re trying to scramble to come up with ideas on how to: 1) continue to get Chicago students the same kind of jobs at the same rate (which is impossible); and 2) continue to make sure students think Chicago students get the same kind of jobs at the same rate. So far, they’ve been mildly successful with our class in Goal #2, though most of us are starting to wise up … and some of us are starting to get more and more worried as more and more grades come out.

Anyway, we’re not all as special and unique as our Mom’s all told us we once were. Or, at least, I’m not. Here’s to mediocrity.

Breaking Point

Soleil — Sun, 02 May 2010 20:10:02 +0000

It doesn’t really take a lot to keep me happy. I’m not a very high-maintenance person. Really. But that being the case, whenever some little, easily avoidable thing goes wrong, it doesn’t take much for it to send me into an absolute rage.

Take today for example.

My usual policy toward the law school building is to avoid it at all costs. Go to class, come home. Spend as little time there as humanly possible. But occasionally, my need for print outs forces me back to school. In addition to my printing needs, my apartment was too sweltering hot to stand for a day of studying so I decided to pack up some snacks, a water bottle, my computer, and my crim law book and make a day of it at the law school.

I found a table toward the back of the building and set up shop. After a few hours of outlining, I decided to go upstairs to the computer lab, print some sections of the Model Penal Code, and head home. I downloaded a giant chunk of MPC off Lexis and immediately took to deleting the pages I wouldn’t need. It was a laborious but mindless task but when I was finished, I had an MPC I could print so I wouldn’t need to constantly flip to the end of the casebook during the exam. I pressed Print and went to the releasing station but couldn’t find my name. After a few minutes of staring dumbly at the screen I noticed the torn piece of notebook paper on which someone had scrawled: Printers Don’t Work.

I sighed audibly, packed up my things and headed to the law library. Downstairs in the media center it took three tries to find a computer that worked. Once I had one, I pulled up my adulterated copy of the MPC and pressed Print again. I looked at the release station and saw a familiar sight: a handwritten, hastily-scrawled sign that read Printers Don’t Work.

A bubble of rage formed in the pit of my stomach as I tried to calmly gather my things. I could feel my face contorting as I quickened my pace to escape the law school as fast as possible.

I can deal with the stress, the monotony, the utter futility of law school. I can deal with the harsh-as-hell grading curve that means little actual difference between an A- and a B+. I can deal with the smugness, the arrogance, the general air of self-satisfaction.

But what I cannot deal with is the absence of a single working printer anywhere in the law school during FINALS.

I don’t know what exactly it is we’re paying for but I’d gladly trade in a few Yale-diplomaed, SCOTUS-clerkshipped, and otherwise sterling-credentialed law professors for a couple of WORKING PRINTERS DURING FINALS!

These are the things that drive an otherwise well-adjusted law student to the breaking point. Everything about law school is hard. But keeping us in printers and paper (and staplers for that matter!) shouldn’t be.

End of rant.

Livin the dream

Chicago_1L — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:23:55 +0000

Hey all. So I literally just turned in out Spring Brief assignment. What a relief that was to get out of the way. I thought it wouldn’t be that hard so I left a bunch of it off to the last minute, kind of. The result was that I have been working on it for about 6 days straight. Have not read for any of my class during that time and have not really slept all that much during that time either (I think the most sleep I got was maybe 5 hours). So anyway, as you might predict, I am very tired, very cranky, and at the same time, very thankful to be done with that hellish assignment. Now, I get the relief of getting to outline and begin preparation for exams, which will start around the beginning of June, I think. No rest for the wicked, I suppose.

I made an interesting realization, or my father did for me, when working on this last assignment. He said, “Well son, just think, now you have the rest of your life to look forward to writing assignments just like this one.” I thought: kill me now. I might be convinced at this point that the last thing I want to do with my life is to become an appellate lawyer. Maybe trial would be better, or, even more interesting to me, transactional. Anyway, this post might be very scatter-brained, but I’m exhausted … so deal.

The other thing I don’t think I talked about yet was grades. They came out piecemeal this quarter since one of our professors worked a little faster than the other in reviewing exams. I didn’t want to say anything before both came out because I’m kinda superstitious and I didn’t want to jinx myself, but anyway. Grades came out and the funny thing is, although I hate law school much more than I did the first quarter (and don’t care nearly as much about grades), somehow, I did better than last quarter. Chalk it up to luck …. literally. I’m really not sure how I did as well as I did but hopefully (knock on wood, fingers-crossed) I can ride this wave with Lady Luck through spring exams. That would be just incredible and ridiculous all at the same time.

As for the break down, I did a bit better on the exam my section took second, than I did on the one we took first, which is exactly what happened last quarter. I’m not sure why this is. I might be that people tend to focus all their energy on the first exam (since, in both quarters, the first exam was generally seen as the harder of the two) and neglect the second while I spread out my studying a bit more. Or, it might be that I just do better on take-homes (since this second exam in both quarters has also been a take-home exam). Anyway, whatever it is, so far, my “method” (read: crazy spat of unbelievable fortune) seems to be working decently well.

Well, cheers for now — here’s to another 1.5 months or so of hating life. Then the real fun begins. Wish me luck, y’all!