Finals Week

Hello all! I know it has been a ridiculously long time since my last post, but such is the life of a 1L. The entire month of November was spent working on my long memo (the big writing assignment of the first semester), and December has been devoted to finishing up classes and taking finals.

This past week I took my first final. It was really nerve-wracking preparing for it. Knowing that the grade I get on that final will count for 100% of my grade for that class doesn't exactly make for a stress-free test. But I prepared the best I could, and went in feeling OK, and left feeling OK.

The one thing I really didn't need was my cat getting sick the day before the final. So instead of chilling out at my apartment the day before my final, trying to relax and get my head right, I was in the vet's office, worrying that she was going to die. But all's well that ends well, I suppose, and she turned out to be in better shape than previously thought, and the final went off (I hope) without a hitch.

So now property is officially done and over with. If only I could remove it from my brain so there would be more room for Crim, which is my next final, this Thursday. It feels like time has flown by; in just over a week, my first semester of law school is going to be over. But the work never seems to end. There is still the matter of applying to summer jobs, which is going on now, and working on my clinic client's case. No rest for the weary, I suppose. Anyway, I'll try and post again in the next week or so, and try and be better about making time to post here. Until then...

The Black Hole

Well, it's happening. And faster than I expected. School has become a black hole, sucking up my free time, my attention, and everything else in my life. I knew going in that law school was going to be a time-suck, but nothing could adequately prepare me for what that really meant. I find myself at school from breakfast till dinner, and then doing work in the evenings and weekends. But I knew this coming in. What's more troubling is how it's spilling over into my personal life.

I'm definitely more sensitive these days. I lose patience with people much more quickly, and I feel like I'm on edge all the time. I have a nearly constant feeling that I've forgotten something, or that I'm missing something. It's a pretty horrible feeling, being overwhelmed all the time. I'm also more sensitive when it comes to friends too. I've become a little paranoid about my relationships, and I sometimes feel like people don't have the same feelings about me as I do them. It is admittedly unfair, and probably untrue (at least mostly), but it's a feeling I can't seem to shake.

I've also noticed recently that, with extremely rare exception, I haven't seen my non-law school friends in a very long time. I've been neglecting to keep in touch with them. I've even been forgetting birthdays. I don't want to be one of those people who goes off to law school and neglects their friends and family to the point that their relationships are never the same. I came in to school with some great relationships, and I would like to come out of school with those relationships intact.

This stress may be old-hat to a lot of people, but this is about as long as I've ever really held out in an academic situation. By this time I've normally begun shutting my eyes to the work, and letting things slip. But I really want this time to be different, so I'm doing my best to keep my eyes open. I guess it's kind of like trying to stay up all night -- it sounds simple, but after a while, all you want to do is give up, and you forget why you wanted to do it in the first place.

 In other news, I had my first meeting with my domestic violence client, who is looking to get an uncontested divorce. It was a bit shaky, partially because the school double-booked my meeting room, and partially because it was my first time flying solo with a client. All-in-all, though, I think it went fairly well. I got a lot of the information I needed, and I felt like I looked and sounded at least a little bit professional. But now, even as I write this, I feel like I may have bitten off more than I can chew. But I won't give up these responsibilities, because I know myself, and I know that I would be unlikely to replace them with other work. More likely, I would replace them with more leisure time, and the more of that I have, the harder it is for me to budget my time.

I apologize for the large gaps in time between posts, but hopefully this post will at least help to explain, if not excuse, my delinquency. Until next time...

My first experience in court

Well, that was fast! Slightly less than 4 full weeks into law school, and I'm already making a court appearance! Today, as part of the Domestic Violence Action Center program I'm involved in, I went to Brooklyn Family Court with a law school friend. We spent early part of the morning introducing ourselves to people in the waiting area, offering our services as student advocates. After helping a couple people fill out their preliminary paperwork, we found somebody that we might be able to help. She was a lovely elderly woman who wanted custody of her grandson and an order of protection against the mother of her grandson after her son passed away, and the mother of his child became abusive of the grandmother. We sat down with the grandmother, interviewed her about the incidents that led her to court today, and wrote an official petition to the court for an order of protection. After submitting the petition, we waited to be called by the judge. Once called, we stood in the courtroom, and took questions from the judge. After the questioning, the judge ACTUALLY GRANTED EVERYTHING WE REQUESTED! You read that right: our petition and oral presentation went well enough to convince a judge not only to grant a temporary order of protection to our client, but to grant custody of a 6 month old infant to an 81 year old woman!

Anyway, back to my regular life of classes and the like tomorrow, but for tonight, I'm savoring my victory.

Wow, that was a busy couple weeks!

I know, I know. I'm a crappy blogger. The gaps between posts are too big, and people lose interest. I'm sorry. That said, the last two weeks have been pretty damn busy. I was given my first practice exam question for property, as well as my first graded assignment in my writing class. I felt pretty good about the practice question when I completed it and emailed it in, only to find out later that I had done a remarkably poor job on it. So much for an early-semester confidence boost. Luckily it was just for practice, and it doesn't count towards my grades at all. After that, I got my writing assignment, which I have been agonizing over for about a week. I spent a good deal of time planning, writing, rewriting, meeting with other students, rewriting again, meeting with my TA, rewriting again, meeting with my TA again, rewriting again, and so on.

In more interesting news, I have my first day in court this Thursday! I will be spending Thursday in court meeting with victims of domestic abuse, potentially finding the person I will be advocating for this semester. In a similar vein, this week is also the week that I get trained to advocate for uncontested divorce applicants (also a part of the Domestic Violence Action Center). It's going to be a very busy week!

Today I got up and took the subway down to Tribeca where I marched with the Fordham OUTLaws (the legal LGBT group) for marriage equality in New York. I got there around 11, when I met up with the other OUTLaws. We then moved over to Foley Square, where there were people making speeches on the subject from noon until about 1:30, after which we marched across the Brooklyn Bridge, holding signs and making our beliefs well-known. It was really a blast, and I'm looking forward to doing more stuff with OUTLaws!

I'm sure I'm forgetting things that have happened, but for the moment I can't think of anything else. If I remember something that I forgot to mention, I will be sure to write another post, or perhaps add to this one. But until then, I'm calling it a night.

In Which Law School Goes From A Sunny Day To A Light Drizzle

As the title of this post cryptically implies, the workload has gone from easy to merely manageable. Today we banged through three or so full cases in a less-than-two-hour Contracts class. Also, the research assignments have begun, and our first major writing assignment is going to be assigned next Monday (we already have the readings that will be required for the paper). Now, rather than working a few hours on Saturday and Sunday and being done with all my classes for the week, I'm working all day Friday, half the day Saturday, and most of the day Sunday, as well as between and after classes every day in order to be one or two classes ahead.

That said, I am still staying current/ahead of my work, so I am not yet drowning. I feel like if I can just keep a day or so ahead, I'll be a mile ahead of everyone else. Which reminds me of a new experience I'm having here that I never had in high school or undergrad. While everyone is generally very friendly and helpful to each other, there is a discernible undercurrent of competition. As assignments are starting to come up, conversations inevitably include some reference (jokingly or otherwise) to the curve on which we will be graded. I understand if people think that I'm being naive, and that a sense of competition was there in high school and college, but I just don't think it was for me. In high school, I didn't apply to the same schools as my friends for the most part, and when I did, it wasn't the same program. And in college, I was friends with people in other majors, so I was never in competition with anybody I knew, so I never got that sense. Now, all of a sudden, I find myself a little torn between genuinely wanting to see my new friends succeed and be happy, and the realization that we are essentially in a zero-sum game, and every A they take is one less for me. I don't much care for that feeling, and I hope that next year when we start taking classes in our respective concentrations, we will be able to have a true non-competition relationship.

OK, complaining time has officially come to an end! Now, for something completely different: things that won't surprise anybody! For my first piece of completely shocking news, I have a really strong desire to be involved in EVERYTHING. I have already signed up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), and I will be receiving my first delivery of farm-fresh produce on Wednesday, and I will soon be volunteering to help deliver locally grown veggies to underprivileged families in the neighborhood. Also, my training for the Domestic Violence Action Center's Courtroom Advocates Program is this Friday. I will be trained so that as a 1L, I will be able to help victims of domestic violence navigate the very daunting legal processes involved in obtaining court orders of protection, uncontested divorces, community support and counseling, and other really great services. I will even have the opportunity to stand before a judge! Great opportunity, great program. I am also giving consideration to becoming a student ambassador, which would mainly entail giving tours once a week to prospective students, but I'm unsure if I'll have the time for that. Also, I gave blood today.

Well, I have class at 9 in the morning tomorrow, so it is time that I cut this rambling post off and get some sleep. Until the next post, goodnight!

Parade of Lunacy

Hello again! It's been a week since my last post, so I thought it was time to fill you in on the law school process. Classes are in semi-full swing. We're still moving fairly slowly, but I continue to understand most things, and I'm enjoying just about everything. The only real bummer is the near-constant reminder from some professors that it's OK to do badly on early projects, and to be confused and to get middling grades. We all know that in a class of 80, less than 10 will get an A- or higher, but we need not be reminded of this quite as often as we are.

Now that I have had more than a week of classes, I am starting to see the greatest part of law school: the parade of worst-case hypothetical scenarios. The best way I can think of to illustrate this phenomenon is through an old ad campaign mixed with a shockingly realistic look at my property class:

This is your brain:
Professor: "So, the court ruled that migrant workers are entitled to receive visitors and guests customary to all citizens"
Students: "Yeah, so the worker's sister is allowed to visit."

This is your brain on law school:
Professor: "So, the court ruled that migrant workers are entitled to receive visitors and guests customary to all citizens"
Student 1: "Yeah, so the worker's sister is allowed to visit."
Student 2:  "OK, then what about a clown?"
Student 1: "A clown? It's not customary."
Student 2: "What if it's a part of their culture? Who are you to decide a clown isn't customary? Or, what if they know a lot of clowns?"
Student 1: "Well, I guess if the migrant worker knew somebody who happened to be a clown, it would be OK. But they couldn't have a clown come, and then try to pass them off as a friend. You would have to establish that he had a prior relationship with the clown."

This is a fairly representative classroom discussion as we, the new crop of 1Ls, try to find our way through the Socratic Method. The only way we can really come to a fair definition of any rule is to start with a general statement, then carry it to its logical (albeit bizarre) conclusion, then carefully whittle it back until it resembles something of use to society (at which we often fail).

That's more or less everything I wanted to talk about, so I'll leave off here, but I'll be sure to share any more funny/interesting/notable things I experience soon!

First Couple Days of Classes

After two days of classes, I'm feeling good. I've been keeping ahead of the workload, and I've made a ton of friends. We all sit near each other in class, eat lunch together, and even study together in the library between and after classes. I have had at least one of every class except Criminal Law, which I will start tomorrow. By far my favorite is Property. We had a great debate in class over the ethics and potential legality of buying/selling organs. It was great!

All of my classes seem to have one thing in common: the entire grade comes down to performance on a final exam. Kind of puts some pressure on that day, doesn't it? Anyway, on a non-law school related note, I was cooking tonight, and then cleaning dishes afterward, and I couldn't help but feel like I'm a little kid playing grown-up or house or something. It's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that somebody (or, more accurately, everybody) seems to think I am some kind of "responsible adult", capable of grownup-like things in grownup-like situations.

Not too much more to report right now, but I'll be sure to check in soon to update everyone on Year One!

Whereupon I Make Friends By Means of Alcohol

Today was the last day of orientation. Therefore, it was decided that there should be a free barbecue (including free beer), as well as a bar special involving a flat fee for 3 hours of open-bar drinking at the end of the day. Needless to say, this was not enough alcohol to satisfy the thirstiest of law students.

During the barbecue, I hung out and ate food and had a few beers with people that I had met before, and sort of knew. We talked for a while (they were all very nice), and at some point in the conversation, I invited several of them to come join me at my apartment for a couple drinks and a hang-out session before the open bar, which started at 9 PM. Anyway, as it turned out, 3 or 4 people turned into more than a dozen people who came back to my apartment after the 1L barbecue for some drinks and music and merry-making, in which we engaged enthusiastically. We drank and talked and laughed and had a lovely time until 9, when it was time to go drink (for a change). We walked all the way from my apartment to 81st and Amsterdam (a huge hike as those of you who have visited can attest), paid our $15 open bar fee, and had at it.

Fast-forward to 11:30. I have now had several jack-and-cokes, a few beers, and some wine at my apartment. I cannot feel my toes. Nor my nose. It is a delightful evening. I feel like I have made a nice group of friends who genuinely seemed to enjoy coming over tonight, which makes me feel hopeful that I am doing OK in the social department of law school.

I am going to end this post here, since it is now around midnight, and the sensation has still not returned to a number of my extremities, and it seems prudent to get some sleep this weekend, as not much sleep is anticipated in the near future. Until the next post......

A Blow to the Ego, Followed by Some Measure of Redemption

Day 2 started similarly to Day 1 with a large group of us being herded into a lecture hall for class. There was some discussion of the book we read, but it mostly consisted of learning court structures and the timeline of the case described in our book. After class, I had a few questions for the professor, so I stayed for a few extra minutes. Mistake. I was now the loser who had nobody to eat lunch with. Nobody had stuck around to get lunch with me, nor had anybody invited me earlier to join them. Everybody ran out to go get lunch in small groups together, which left me to walk a few blocks downtown and buy lunch by myself and bring it back to school. I brought it to the cafeteria, where I caught a break and found another 1L eating at a table, so I went and joined him. It was a pretty sucky feeling going and getting lunch alone, and I was worried that all the perceived progress I had made the day before was for naught. The rest of the day was kind of colored by that severe blow to my self-esteem, which made the afternoon session drag on a bit. Luckily, one of the people I met yesterday was willing to meet up and go to the orientation drink session.

So, we ended up meeting and going over to the 79th Street Boat Basin Cafe around 8, and stayed until about 11:15. I hung out with the same small group of people the whole time, and we had a very nice time. Thus was my ego patched after the morning's disaster. There's really not much more to say right now, so I'll leave this blog off here.

First Day of Orientation

Well, here we are. The end of the first day of law school orientation. After all these months and years of thinking about, planning for and looking forward to law school, it arrived with surprising suddenness. I went to bed last night early, with the knowledge that I would be waking up around 7 for an 8:30 registration session. I lay in bed, nervous about today, unable to sleep for a while. I finally fell asleep, got a few hours, then woke up to my alarm thinking "what am I doing?". This was no ordinary cliche "what am I doing". This was an all-out "who have I been fooling here? I am totally unprepared for this, and I'm in too deep to back out now, and omigod what have I done to my life?" moment. It's the feeling you get when you talk a big game and get on the biggest, fastest roller coaster in the park, and then start going up the first big hill, and have that horrible feeling of regret, but there's nothing you can do about it because you're in too deep. Except this was multiplied by about a million. Anyway, after my initial feelings of nausea and desire to vomit, I got out of bed, showered, got ready and headed to school, feeling like a bundle of nerves.

I got there, and everybody was sitting around quietly, but shortly thereafter, we were ushered into the large atrium, where we picked up orientation materials, and hung out at tables of 6. I chatted it up with the 5 other people at my table (and for those of you familiar with me, you will be unsurprised by the next part), and ended up having a pretty good chat with the 3 girls next to me, and only really talked to the guys for a couple minutes. After that, it was time to move to the big auditorium for orientation to really get started.

This is where I should probably state a general purpose for this blog. I did not intend to make it a blow-by-blow of law school. Rather, I wanted people to understand the experience of being a first year law student from a first-hand source, including primarily my feelings, reactions and all-around sense of law school. Therefore, I am omitting the remainder of the actual events of orientation thus far, as they do not serve the general sentiment of this blog.

After orientation, however, the unofficial get-to-know-you festivities began. The SBA (Student Bar Association) made an arrangement with a bar (less than 2 blocks from my apartment, conveniently) that allowed a ton of 1L's to come in, show a school ID, get a wristband and have discounted drinks and food for a good deal of the evening. I attended, purely for research purposes of course, and took depositions from a couple beers and cross-examined a shot and a cupcake (don't question the combination!).

There were definitely some times today when I felt like other people were having an easier time than I was at making friends, and a bunch of people seemed to already have a relationship with new classmates that extended to showing up to and leaving the bar simultaneously, and I am a little worried that I may have missed some hidden opportunity to make all my life-long friends and contacts that supposedly I will be making this year. In the end, though, I ended up with 2 new phone numbers, a new facebook friend, and a handful of people that I know by name and who now know me by name, including several from my section (yay section 4!!!). So a total loss it was not. I have high hopes for orientation day 2 tomorrow, which will finally include discussion of the book we read, and some real-life law classes (ungraded though they may be). Also, tomorrow's bar du jour is also within 1/2 mile of my apartment, so I intend to be in attendance for more "legal research". Until then, I hope you enjoyed this first installment of True Confessions of a 1L!