Well, it has definitely been quite sometime since I have actually posted anything on this poor blog. Of course there have been plenty of intervening classes and events that I have had the opportunity to participate in. Thus, I am going to do a "small" catch-up post and try and get back into the habit of posting here.
To begin with, when I last posted it was the middle of the fall semester of my 1L year. I was probably up to my shoulders in Contracts, Criminal Law, Property, Torts, and Legal Analysis Research and Writing. Needless to say things sure did not slow down that semester. Most of my classes had midterms (a rarity in law school). The only class I did not have a midterm in was Torts, actually. I ended the semester with one memo to hand in, an eight hour take home final, and three in-class exams that lasted anywhere from three to four hours. By the time this semester was over I was definitely ready to take a break and fortunately Christmas break was longer than the ones I had in undergrad.
I spent most of my break celebrating with family but I also spent plenty of time agonizing over what my grades would be. Unfortunately I would not get my grades back until after my spring semester had begun. For the most part my grades did not disappoint, although I could have really done without the poor Property grade.
My spring semester ushered in a few new classes and a few classes I wished had ended already. On the schedule this semester Contracts and Legal Analysis Research and Writing were joined by Civil Procedure I, Criminal Procedure I, and Constitutional Law. Lets just say if it was not for the extra curricular activities that I participated in I would have likely had a tougher time deciding to come back after this semester.
Contracts was a difficult class due to my instructor having a heart attack around the second week of class which threw off the schedule for the rest of the semester and left me failing to understand the Parole Evidence Rule as well as I probably should have. My writing class focused on writing the appellate brief this semester which was supposed to be persuasive and should have been more entertaining but by the end of the semester I was disenchanted with law school grading as a whole, and most of that frustration came from this class. I'll discuss that in more detail though in a later post.
The other classes were not necessarily bad but they were also not necessarily good either. Constitutional Law was rather boring and it really only dealt with the commerce clause, although my instructor spent most of class lecturing us on the various supreme court justices and their quirks as opposed to actual constitutional law... Criminal Procedure should have been named Constitutional Considerations in Criminal Law because the class was light on procedure and heavy on fourth and fifth amendment content. Civil Procedure on the other hand was actually interesting because it started to elucidate the actual process of filing a court case, which is kind of why I came to law school in the first place.
As I said I would probably not have chosen to return for another two years of law school if it was not for the extra circular activities I participated in. This semester we had the opportunity to visit the local sheriff's office, the morgue, and the county jail. Since I am primarily interested in criminal law this gave me the opportunity to see the system I would work in and hopefully have a chance to influence when I complete my degree.
I also had the opportunity to volunteer to be a juror for our Intensive Trial Advocacy Program (ITAP) which is a quick two week course designed to get 2Ls familiar with the basics of how court proceedings work. This combined with the oral argument I had to give in defense of my appellate brief gave me a glimmer of hope that I will actually enjoy law school and being a lawyer someday.
My final grades from the Spring semester definitely left something to be desired but I am not going to let one semester where I allowed myself to get distracted and discouraged by the course content (or lack there of sometimes) get me down. I am currently taking a few summer classes which I will discuss in a future post and I have decided to keep a decent balance between my school and personal life so that I do not lose sight of the reasons why I am going to law school to begin with (my family).
Thus, now that I am back I will hopefully continue to post with more regularity. I already have a few upcoming posts in mind. I have also decided that I am not going to focus so much on tips and tricks for law school but rather I am just going to share my experiences in and out of the classroom. Some posts will probably be devoted to strictly law school stuff but I am also going to toss in a few posts about the things I am doing to maintain the balance between law school and "life." I hope those of you who are already here will stick with me and I hope that at least some of my future readers will find my posts worth reading and stick around!
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Where did all the time go?
So it has obviously been a while since I have written anything here. I really do not have much of a good excuse except that by the time I had any free time left to write I was so worn out of typing and and editing that I could not bring myself to create a post. Anyway, the last few weeks have been a crazy free fall into the world of law school. I have written more papers than I care to shake a stick at, I have typed more words then I ever did in all four years of my undergrad combine and I have felt completely inadequate more times than I have in the rest of my life. Law school is tough and anyone who tells you it is not is lying to you and themselves.
With that said it does not mean that my life is law school. To the contrary I still have plenty of free time and I manage to get all of my homework done and I am prepared for most of my classes (some of them no one can possibly be prepared for... Property I'm looking at you!) So yea, I have been on two dates since classes have started, granted one of them was for my one year anniversary but the other was just something we wanted to do. I addition, up until this week I have been able to keep up with the yard chores and still find time to watch most of my shows (now there are like 20 hours a week of them... The networks need to stop releasing high quality shows!) Needless to say my life is not all law school all the time but when it is law school time it is serious time.
So why then has my last few weeks been so tumultuous? One. Simple. Word. Memorandum. This is an incredibly tough topic to define, in fact it is such a hard concept to understand that we have spent every class since the start of the school year discussing this beast. Still with all of that preparation I never imagined it would take me over a week to write eight pages of quality legal argumentation. Let alone 3 hours just to write 2 paragraphs. None the less my closed memo is due this Friday and I sort of feel like I have a grasp on what I am doing. Of course that does not mean it is done but after tonight I feel that it will be. All that is left to do would be edit it and most likely rework the whole concept from the ground up for the fourth or fifth time. I think so far the most complicated thing about this memo is the fact that we have been told that legal writing is nothing like what we have done before but we have not exactly been told how it differs per se. Also we have been told that it is common to trip and fall throughout the writing process our first year in law school. My problem (and I am sure I am not alone here) is that I prefer not to trip and fall off a cliff as it seems I am doing with this memo.
Anyway, I could be doing something way more productive here in the library than pounding out a blog post so I will leave you with this, being a law student is not easy but if you are reading this blog and considering whether or not it is something you want to try I would highly encourage it. I have learned so much in just two months than I could have ever hoped to learn in four [and a half] years of undergraduate work. It is tough but it is also so very rewarding to look back and see what all I have accomplished so far.
With that said it does not mean that my life is law school. To the contrary I still have plenty of free time and I manage to get all of my homework done and I am prepared for most of my classes (some of them no one can possibly be prepared for... Property I'm looking at you!) So yea, I have been on two dates since classes have started, granted one of them was for my one year anniversary but the other was just something we wanted to do. I addition, up until this week I have been able to keep up with the yard chores and still find time to watch most of my shows (now there are like 20 hours a week of them... The networks need to stop releasing high quality shows!) Needless to say my life is not all law school all the time but when it is law school time it is serious time.
So why then has my last few weeks been so tumultuous? One. Simple. Word. Memorandum. This is an incredibly tough topic to define, in fact it is such a hard concept to understand that we have spent every class since the start of the school year discussing this beast. Still with all of that preparation I never imagined it would take me over a week to write eight pages of quality legal argumentation. Let alone 3 hours just to write 2 paragraphs. None the less my closed memo is due this Friday and I sort of feel like I have a grasp on what I am doing. Of course that does not mean it is done but after tonight I feel that it will be. All that is left to do would be edit it and most likely rework the whole concept from the ground up for the fourth or fifth time. I think so far the most complicated thing about this memo is the fact that we have been told that legal writing is nothing like what we have done before but we have not exactly been told how it differs per se. Also we have been told that it is common to trip and fall throughout the writing process our first year in law school. My problem (and I am sure I am not alone here) is that I prefer not to trip and fall off a cliff as it seems I am doing with this memo.
Anyway, I could be doing something way more productive here in the library than pounding out a blog post so I will leave you with this, being a law student is not easy but if you are reading this blog and considering whether or not it is something you want to try I would highly encourage it. I have learned so much in just two months than I could have ever hoped to learn in four [and a half] years of undergraduate work. It is tough but it is also so very rewarding to look back and see what all I have accomplished so far.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Labor Day Weekend is for Laboring!
As we were walking out of class yesterday my professor made sure to remind us that we should use Labor Day weekend for what it was intended to be used for, and that is laboring on our classes. Of course for most of us this is the first weekend where real life will intervene and attempt to sabotage our best laid plans. I know personally I have a wedding to attend today, a barbecue to enjoy tomorrow and two more hours of driving Monday. Of course I have to fit in all the studying somewhere in there and my professors sure did not make it easy for us. I know most people like to point and laugh at the 1Ls as the scurry around exclaiming the sky is falling every time it comes to doing homework. The truth of the matter is, those who love to point and laugh were at one point the exact same 1Ls running around wondering how they will ever get all this work done.
Of course that should make most of us rest easy to know that at some point in the future we should be able to relax just enough so that we can realize the work load is tedious but it will end. I just hope that time comes before we go crazy, before we decide to quit, or before we are sitting for the bar exam. Hey I can dream can't I?
So by now I have been in law school for two weeks and us 1Ls have a feel for what the work is like, although most of us probably are not experts at briefing cases and we are probably not experts at the Socratic method yet but most of us probably go to class now not completely stressing being called on and hopefully we have all had the chance to be completely wrong at least once so we know that it is just a fact of life. Of course along with all of that we have hopefully figured out some of the tricks of the trade and we feel just a little bit more prepared on a day to day basis.
I know for me this week has been an eye opener. This is the week where you start to see those who are not cut out for this show themselves. As the week progressed, more and more people showed up to class unprepared and more and more people were called on and answered with I don't knows. Additionally, as the week grew long in the days more and more people skipped class, I am not sure if it was for lack of preparedness or lack of motivation but the seats were empty. Hopefully for them it was an eye opener as well, hopefully they will get on top of their work and make it a point to show up to class. Of course if they don't I can't say that I will mind too much because it means those are the people that will be in the bottom when class ranks come out, and that can only help my chances of landing the job I want.
For now though, I just hope that tonight the wedding does not entice me to drink too much so I am ready to tackle Property, Crim Law, Contracts, and Torts bright and early tomorrow before relaxing by the pool with a beer in hand waiting for a delicious burger from the grill.
Of course that should make most of us rest easy to know that at some point in the future we should be able to relax just enough so that we can realize the work load is tedious but it will end. I just hope that time comes before we go crazy, before we decide to quit, or before we are sitting for the bar exam. Hey I can dream can't I?
So by now I have been in law school for two weeks and us 1Ls have a feel for what the work is like, although most of us probably are not experts at briefing cases and we are probably not experts at the Socratic method yet but most of us probably go to class now not completely stressing being called on and hopefully we have all had the chance to be completely wrong at least once so we know that it is just a fact of life. Of course along with all of that we have hopefully figured out some of the tricks of the trade and we feel just a little bit more prepared on a day to day basis.
I know for me this week has been an eye opener. This is the week where you start to see those who are not cut out for this show themselves. As the week progressed, more and more people showed up to class unprepared and more and more people were called on and answered with I don't knows. Additionally, as the week grew long in the days more and more people skipped class, I am not sure if it was for lack of preparedness or lack of motivation but the seats were empty. Hopefully for them it was an eye opener as well, hopefully they will get on top of their work and make it a point to show up to class. Of course if they don't I can't say that I will mind too much because it means those are the people that will be in the bottom when class ranks come out, and that can only help my chances of landing the job I want.
For now though, I just hope that tonight the wedding does not entice me to drink too much so I am ready to tackle Property, Crim Law, Contracts, and Torts bright and early tomorrow before relaxing by the pool with a beer in hand waiting for a delicious burger from the grill.
Monday, August 23, 2010
First Day of Classes
Well today is the official first day of classes and so far I have one class down. This weekend was spent obsessing over the law and my legal education. I spent each afternoon and evening studying diligently for the classes for this week. It seemed as if the questions never stopped coming and the words on the pages always seemed to go on and on. Looking back I am now finding it rather hard to distinguish what I read from what I dreamed and what I dreamed from what I wrote. It is going to be an interesting week, but I am thankful that I can by no means claim that I am an expert yet at studying. Nor am I an expert at the law.
As I sit here now in the commons of the law school I realize that everything I did this weekend prepared me to step into the classroom, unfortunately none of what I did actually prepared me to answer the questions my professor will pose. To do this I now realize it is going to take some actual thinking not just transcribing the facts and answering the simple questions. In fact, just completing the assignment is step one. Step two is thinking about what I read and actually making it make sense. Step three is taking those things that make sense and applying them to other things to solidify my understanding of the subject matter. I now realize I still have a long way to go with the material I studied this weekend.
As I sit here I also realize that most of my class members are incredibly obsessive with impressing everyone they possibly can. I am setting here typing up a blog post while my classmates are setting here discussing every little thing we read this weekend and attempting to make themselves sound intelligent by exemplifying their prior knowledge as well as what they think the law is for every topic under the sun. They also are obsessively using the vocabulary that we all only barely have a grasp of as it stands now.
So my advice to you this week is, do what you need to do to get the material down. Do not obsess over impressing your classmates, instead obsess over how well YOU think you learned the material. If you learned the material and you are able to demonstrate that in class then impressing your classmates will happen.
As I sit here now in the commons of the law school I realize that everything I did this weekend prepared me to step into the classroom, unfortunately none of what I did actually prepared me to answer the questions my professor will pose. To do this I now realize it is going to take some actual thinking not just transcribing the facts and answering the simple questions. In fact, just completing the assignment is step one. Step two is thinking about what I read and actually making it make sense. Step three is taking those things that make sense and applying them to other things to solidify my understanding of the subject matter. I now realize I still have a long way to go with the material I studied this weekend.
As I sit here I also realize that most of my class members are incredibly obsessive with impressing everyone they possibly can. I am setting here typing up a blog post while my classmates are setting here discussing every little thing we read this weekend and attempting to make themselves sound intelligent by exemplifying their prior knowledge as well as what they think the law is for every topic under the sun. They also are obsessively using the vocabulary that we all only barely have a grasp of as it stands now.
So my advice to you this week is, do what you need to do to get the material down. Do not obsess over impressing your classmates, instead obsess over how well YOU think you learned the material. If you learned the material and you are able to demonstrate that in class then impressing your classmates will happen.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
I have arrived.
Well, today marked the second day of orientation and it has been quite a ride so far. I am not sure how most schools do orientation but for us we have the opportunity to attend a class (either Contracts or Torts) on a daily basis. In this class we get the chance to slowly wade into the world of legal education. Of course I have no delusions that after this week law school will be as slow as it is now, but I'm extremely glad we can take these baby steps before we sprint (albeit sprint for a marathon).
Most of the activities that I will participate in this week are centered around creating strategies that will hopefully make my endeavors in law school more successful. While I have my doubts that everything I will do this week will be beneficial (tomorrow for example we get the opportunity to practice being grilled in what our professor has termed an over aggressive socratic fashion) I am hoping that most of what I do this week will aid me down the road.
From the tone of this post it would seem that I am rather apprehensive about the coming months, and I suppose that is probably a little expected since everything I have done up to this point is pretty much just the work that got me here, the rules of the game have changed and the standard is much, much higher for success. Of course, I also look at this as an incredible opportunity and can't wait to get to work in all of my classes.
One last thing I have observed so far that I have to mention is the fact that it seems as if one step I took this summer has prepared me better than any other step so far. That was reading McClurg's "One L of a Ride". This book goes over what to expect and how to handle it all but it also goes over a simple method for assimilating all of the information we are bombarded with on a daily basis. So if you are out there and still a little uncertain of what you are doing or what to expect and you want to do a little more prep reading I would highly suggest this book, but if you don't I can definitely understand and I can't say you will truly be that far behind.
Most of the activities that I will participate in this week are centered around creating strategies that will hopefully make my endeavors in law school more successful. While I have my doubts that everything I will do this week will be beneficial (tomorrow for example we get the opportunity to practice being grilled in what our professor has termed an over aggressive socratic fashion) I am hoping that most of what I do this week will aid me down the road.
From the tone of this post it would seem that I am rather apprehensive about the coming months, and I suppose that is probably a little expected since everything I have done up to this point is pretty much just the work that got me here, the rules of the game have changed and the standard is much, much higher for success. Of course, I also look at this as an incredible opportunity and can't wait to get to work in all of my classes.
One last thing I have observed so far that I have to mention is the fact that it seems as if one step I took this summer has prepared me better than any other step so far. That was reading McClurg's "One L of a Ride". This book goes over what to expect and how to handle it all but it also goes over a simple method for assimilating all of the information we are bombarded with on a daily basis. So if you are out there and still a little uncertain of what you are doing or what to expect and you want to do a little more prep reading I would highly suggest this book, but if you don't I can definitely understand and I can't say you will truly be that far behind.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
As the Minutes Tick Away...
There are exactly 6875 minutes until I begin my journey towards my JD. I have finally finished all of my homework. All of the reading is done and all of the assignments filled out. I have also finished mentally preparing for one of the toughest challenges I will undoubtedly face thus far in my life. I have finally received my class assignments, I know what books I will need, I know when my tests will be and I know which professors I will have. I know which classrooms I will spend most of my time in and I know where I will spend all the rest of my time studying at home. Needless to say, the only thing I have yet to do is lay out my outfit, which is probably going a little far!
I know most of you will look at this and chuckle. I hope that in a years time I will be able to look back on this post and laugh at how worked up I was for this process to start. In all honesty though I would have it no other way. As I have said before, I have been waiting for this for a VERY long time and this much excitement on my part is expected.
Of course not everything I do is all serious business. It is also very important to schedule some time in my weeks to just hang out and enjoy the beautiful days in the sun. That leads me to my very first tip that I have come across since I have been preparing for school to start.
Read as much as you can on the topic and by that I don't mean read the textbooks out there. In fact I think I learned the most about what to expect from blogs I happened across on the web. I did read a few books that discussed law school, and I think for the most part I am a better person for them but in all honesty getting the information from the students as well as those who have taught the law for years is important. Each side has their own observations and their own tips and tricks. Thus, most everyone will tell you that you should read this summer but their advice will always vary on what you should read and in my opinion it could not hurt to get the advice of as many people as you possibly can.
Without that I would like to direct your attention to the right column of this blog where you will find a list of blogs that I read. All of these blogs I subscribe to and read daily. They all have great information and some of them deal exclusively with law school even. Hopefully, for those of you reading this you will take to heart my suggestion and check out of a few of these blogs and even better maybe you will even subscribe to a few of them.
I know most of you will look at this and chuckle. I hope that in a years time I will be able to look back on this post and laugh at how worked up I was for this process to start. In all honesty though I would have it no other way. As I have said before, I have been waiting for this for a VERY long time and this much excitement on my part is expected.
Of course not everything I do is all serious business. It is also very important to schedule some time in my weeks to just hang out and enjoy the beautiful days in the sun. That leads me to my very first tip that I have come across since I have been preparing for school to start.
Read as much as you can on the topic and by that I don't mean read the textbooks out there. In fact I think I learned the most about what to expect from blogs I happened across on the web. I did read a few books that discussed law school, and I think for the most part I am a better person for them but in all honesty getting the information from the students as well as those who have taught the law for years is important. Each side has their own observations and their own tips and tricks. Thus, most everyone will tell you that you should read this summer but their advice will always vary on what you should read and in my opinion it could not hurt to get the advice of as many people as you possibly can.
Without that I would like to direct your attention to the right column of this blog where you will find a list of blogs that I read. All of these blogs I subscribe to and read daily. They all have great information and some of them deal exclusively with law school even. Hopefully, for those of you reading this you will take to heart my suggestion and check out of a few of these blogs and even better maybe you will even subscribe to a few of them.
Monday, July 26, 2010
0L
Well, the summer is winding down and I am nearing another huge milestone in my life. In just three weeks I will start my 1L year at Washburn Law School and there is still so much to do before that morning. I still have a few pages to read, a few assignments to finish, and a lot of relaxing to do. Despite all of that work, I am still incredibly excited to finally start something that I have been looking forward to ever since I was kid. Of course, once it does start I am sure that I will be just as excited for it to end.
So to begin with, a little bit about this blog. I have chosen to start and hopefully maintain a blog throughout my three years as a law student because it will give me a forum to voice ideas, opinions, and points of view in a manner that will ultimately be conducive to my educational goals. Most will admit that lawyers are really just highly specialized professional writers, thus this will not only become a place to share my trials and tribulations but also a large body of work from which I will hopefully be able to draw samples from for future endeavors. With that said I truly look forward to conductive criticism as well as dissenting opinions that will aid me in growing as a person as well as a law student and eventually as a lawyer.
With all of that said, I hope that these next three years will prove to be as exciting and challenging as I suspect they will be and I hope that I will be able to share these experiences, lessons learned, and insights with all of you!
So to begin with, a little bit about this blog. I have chosen to start and hopefully maintain a blog throughout my three years as a law student because it will give me a forum to voice ideas, opinions, and points of view in a manner that will ultimately be conducive to my educational goals. Most will admit that lawyers are really just highly specialized professional writers, thus this will not only become a place to share my trials and tribulations but also a large body of work from which I will hopefully be able to draw samples from for future endeavors. With that said I truly look forward to conductive criticism as well as dissenting opinions that will aid me in growing as a person as well as a law student and eventually as a lawyer.
With all of that said, I hope that these next three years will prove to be as exciting and challenging as I suspect they will be and I hope that I will be able to share these experiences, lessons learned, and insights with all of you!