Posts Tagged ‘Columbia’

Legal Methods is over! Our last class was great. Sure, it wasn’t a party like another section’s last class. Or canceled like another section’s last class. We had cases to discuss and scholars’ statutory interpretation philosophies to debate. But when we had finished our substantive discussion, Professor LM wrapped up with a speech reflecting on all the work we’d done in the past three weeks, what he hoped we’d learned in the class, what he hoped we’d learn in law school, and what he hoped we’d do in our law careers. It was really inspiring and when he was finished the whole room erupted in applause. I’ve always wanted to be in a class where everyone applauded the professor at the end.

My legal writing section celebrated the end of Legal Methods with a Columbia-sponsored happy hour. I wonder how long this drinking-on-Columbia’s-tab thing will last. I hope for at least a little while longer since I haven’t really been able to take advantage much yet. I doubt all the myriad extracurricular organizations are finished trying to woo us. At least, if the ENDLESS BARRAGE OF LISTSERV EMAILS IS ANY INDICATOR!

Speaking of, I haven’t really come across anything I feel like joining. I’m sure employers don’t care, but I was hoping to find something interesting to join, at least for the social aspect. Apparently we have a softball club. Once upon a time (i.e. before puberty) I was really good at sports. I even played on a pee-wee hockey team. But if the past 15 years are any indication, I now suck at all things athletic. Unless yoga and pilates count. Which, let’s face it, they do not. But I think I might like to play softball. They said all skill levels are welcome…but maybe there’s something in the law school’s anti-discrimination policy that makes them say that. Anyway, I’ll think about it some more.

So, I think I’ve been sufficiently acclimated to this thing called law school. True, unlike a lot of other 1Ls, I haven’t gotten very far on any of my substantive classes, but my LM class consisted of more course hours than my full schedule so I’m looking forward to more free time.

I’ve heard mostly good things about my professors, but Professor Torts is on loan from the University of Chicago so he was a bit of a scary wildcard. (I heard they actually give out C’s at Chicago.) But he isn’t nearly as intimidating as I’d pictured. He kind of dances around the room and Socraticizes us in a friendly, non-threatening manner. He treats it as more of a conversation rather than a test. Torts cases are always interesting; today’s theme was obnoxious children, including one case where an adult woman sued a five year old. Awesome.

Civil Procedure…well to be honest, I’m kind of loving it. I found the reading to be really interesting. I’m definitely a rule-oriented person so I think I’ll be one of those rare people for whom Civ Pro really appeals. The professor seems nice enough. He ended class a bit early today so he could fly down to DC to do something for a former high school classmate of his…Sonia something or other.

Contracts is my small section. There are fewer than 40 people in this class. I don’t really have any thoughts on Contracts yet. It’s too soon to write it off, obviously, but I was less in love with the material than with Civ Pro, if that says anything. True, there is little that is more gorily exciting than botched plastic surgery, but the issues of law themselves just appeal to me less. So far anyway. It’s obviously way too soon to make any kind of definitive judgment.

But in any event, so far so good.

I know I JUST posted on here and I’m sure you’re sick of me, but I’m up and wired and I need to get it all out on (virtual) paper before I forget everything.

So CLS Orientation for the class of 2012 is over. The dean of the law school gave a great welcoming speech that was equal parts informative, inspiring, hilarious, and sobering. The dean of admissions gave a really great speech where she mentioned some of the accomplishments of the class of 2012. (She had a mini awards ceremony where she gave out boxes of chocolates to people who would reveal themselves after she described them or read a portion of their personal statement. Some were light and fun, like the guy who wrote about racing down hallways in chairs with his co-workers, and some were awesome, like a girl who won a gold medal in the Beijing Olympics – she even flexed her arms in front of the whole class!) They did this during the welcome speech in undergrad too, but back then I found it demoralizing since I had done nothing anywhere near as great as some of my classmates did. While that’s still true, this time it felt different. I felt really inspired to be in the same class as such amazing people. I’m going to learn a lot from them.

I met a lot of great people over the past couple days as well. Maybe it’s just the glow of a brand new life chapter that will wear off once everyone is in the thick of statutes and case law, but people here are super friendly and warm. Everyone just wants to meet everyone else. People are generally nothing like I pictured they’d be – all pretentious and nerdy.

Legal Methods has already begun. (Legal Methods is basically an “intro to law school” course. This class will go until September 4^th and then all my other classes start the following Tuesday. Legal Methods is pass/fail and the exam is in October.) The professor I have is slightly infamous for being the only one to actually expect us to do any work for LM. There was a ton of reading due for the first class meeting and it took me about 47 hours straight to get through it with some rudimentary understanding.

Class the next day was enjoyable, but I left completely frustrated with myself. There were three separate occasions where I wanted to say something, didn’t say it, and then regretted it. I don’t know what I’m so afraid of, but I think it’s common to first year law students. I called my mom and complained to her about my lameness and she sagely inquired, “Well, why are you such a weenie?” I don’t know! It’s like if I volunteer to say something in the course of our discussion, I will definitely say something stupid, and then I will be immediately sucked up into a black hole and DIE.

But obviously, that’s ridiculous. So I need to get over myself and start taking an active role in this education I’m so lucky to be getting.

So who else started school this week?

It was getting close there. So close I feared I wouldn’t find a place to live by my self-imposed deadline of August 1. (Although my current lease doesn’t run out till August 31, I wanted to be all moved in before school starts on August 17.) I briefly toyed with the idea of keeping my upper east side three bedroom and unceremoniously replacing my Evil Roommate, but the terror of waiting for the cross town bus late at night in the dead of winter made proximity to school win out in the end. (Evil Roommate has decided to keep the apartment, take my bedroom – which has its own bathroom – and get two new roommates. She even got the management company to lower the rent. But I’m not bitter or anything.)

Anyway! The apartment finding process in New York City can be cutthroat and heartbreaking. In total I saw just seven apartments in three trips to the west side with my broker. In the first trip, I saw a $1300 shoe box on West 72^nd (the previous tenant kept his or her dresser out in the hallway), a great apartment on West 113^th and Frederick Douglass for $1195, and a small, but well-maintained studio on West 105^th and Columbus for $1295. I eagerly put down an application on the second studio. I could not believe it was so cheap. I wasn’t in love with the area since it was on the east side of Morningside Park. While that wouldn’t pose a problem during the light of day, if I returned home from school at night, I’d have to walk a few blocks out of my way to go around the park.

I was on the cross town bus headed back to the east side when my broker called with the bad news: I lost the apartment to another applicant who got his/her application in about an hour before me. I’m not too proud to admit it, but losing it brought me to tears. I had about a week until August 1 and I was losing hope. The broker called again a few hours later to tell me that the same property company had what they called an identical studio for the same price just two doors down from the one I lost. So I ran (not literally) back over to the west side to see.

And now, a public service announcement: NEVER RENT AN APARTMENT SIGHT UNSEEN.

Yeah, the two-doors down neighbor was identical to my lost studio…in Backwards Land maybe! It was a SHOE BOX. Even though I was still upset at having lost my studio just hours before, I laughed out loud when I saw the second one. I really thought the property company had a lot of nerve charging the same rent for two radically different sized apartments. So that was a wash.

Then on Tuesday July 28, four days before my deadline, my broker called with three apartments he wanted me to see on Amsterdam Avenue. The first one was very large, but very dated. The appliances looked like they hadn’t been touched since the 70s. The second apartment was the same as the first except with newer appliances. The third apartment was tiny, but I was completely seduced by its marble granite counters, built-in microwave, separate bedroom, and DISHWASHER. As I was gazing at the shiny granite countertop, another broker came in and brought a prospective applicant with him. I panicked and practically pushed my broker down the stairs and out the door so he could put my application in. I had him submit my application for all three apartments in order of preference: last one first, second one second, first one last.

I went home and excitedly described every minute detail of the kitchen in one of my lengthy daily emails to my best friend who lives in Los Angeles, and slowly but surely, my lust for the apartment began to wane. I realized that the separate bedroom would not fit a single piece of furniture besides my bed. (After I graduated college, I decided that as a newly-minted grown up with a job, I had to have a queen-size bed.) What’s more, I very much doubted that all the rest of my furniture would fit in the rest of the apartment. I started to panic. Besides my bed, I have a dresser, a night table, a fairly long desk, a bookshelf, and I wanted to take the breakfast table in the living room. And it’s a fourth floor walk-up! And! There was only one closet in the entire apartment! WHAT WAS I THINKING?

And this brings me to my second PSA: DO NOT LET A SEXY KITCHEN DISTRACT YOU FROM WHAT REALLY MATTERS. Like closet space.

I decided that I needed to call my broker and change my order. Before I could, he called me and said simply, “Can you come by at 2 to sign a lease? Someone else got your first choice apartment so you got the second one. Is that okay?” So in the span of about three hours, I saw, applied for, and got my very own apartment!

In the end, all worked out as it should have and now I’m the proud renter of a large studio on the west side with new appliances and three closets. All my furniture will fit and it’s only a second floor walk-up. I was able to get my keys last Thursday and I’ve been back a few times to take measurements. I plan on moving in next week.

So that settles that. I’m not going to be homeless during law school. One less thing to worry about.

Undergrad is a curious place. I was 18 when I first set foot on Wellesley’s gorgeous green campus. When I think about how easily I could have ended up at some other college and how drastically different my life would be as a result, it really freaks me out. As with most good things that happened for me in my life, I really owe it all to my mom. For when the unsolicited application came in the mail, I recoiled at the thought of attending an all-women’s institution. Mom rather forcefully insisted that I apply, and so to avoid incurring her wrath, I scraped together an application and threw it in the mail on the day of the deadline.

I flew into Boston to visit Wellesley at their admitted students event in spring 2002, and the moment I stepped on campus, I was in love. Everywhere you looked people were smiling and getting along, offering to direct you somewhere if you looked lost (which I did – and do – a lot). I feel really lucky to have gone there.

But as I look back on my college experience, I have a lot of – well, regrets seems like too harsh a word. It’s more like…if I could do it over, I’d do a lot of things differently. Wellesley was almost wasted on me. I was too young to appreciate it. If I could do it over, I would take advantage more of what they had to offer in terms lectures and guest speakers and organizations and other academic opportunities. I wish I had designed a course schedule more in line with my intellectual curiosities as opposed to what would let me sleep in the most days. I wish I had – as my mother urged – majored in economics.

I don’t want to leave law school in three years with the same kinds of regrets. I fear that I’ll be so concerned with just surviving Columbia Law that I’ll never get a chance to really thrive and enjoy my experience. The stakes are so much higher now. I fear that I’ll fall back into that familiar complacency that prevented me from getting all I really could out of my undergraduate years.

Then again, there’s a certain amount of ‘getting my money’s worth’ mentality at play here. I’ll be shouldering the cost of law school myself and I’ll be damned if I waste a single penny of the aforementioned debt. Perhaps that thought alone will be enough to keep me from letting awesome opportunities slip by.

In other news, I have just about three more weeks left of work before my summer of uselessness commences. (By useless, I mean absolutely no so-called “law school prep.” No E&Es, no Gilberts, none of that crap. By and large, current law students seem to believe that spending any time on that before you get to law school is a waste of time and I’ll take their word for it. Especially if it means more time to spend watching bad reality TV.) I’m going to spend a lot of time in Jersey with the family, catch up with old friends, roam about the city, and hopefully hit the beach and maybe Six Flags. Next week some current CLS students are organizing a happy hour for New York-area rising 1Ls and I’m pretty excited about that. It’ll be awesome to meet my future classmates in a stress-free setting.

So let me ask you, rising 1Ls who happen to be reading, what are your plans for the summer before law school?