law school

One down, Five to go

I haven’t written in over two months. Where to start. After October, The semester got harder and harder as the weeks went on. I remember taking trooper to a few Halloween parties. I remember family visiting. Apart from one or two outings the rest of my time was devoted to just keeping up with the assigned readings. Keeping up became such a challenge when Trooper caught a stomach virus, house chores piled up, and all-nighters induced me into developing a caffeine and sleeping pill addiction cycle; eventually my juggling act became an exercise of avoiding the greatest damage with each decision I made. I don’t know what motivated me to assume this hardship. Whatever I was avoiding must have been bad because the weeks during and leading up to finals were the hardest weeks of my life.

I don’t know what my grades were. I just feel lucky to have gotten through it. After all my finals were done and my classmates were out celebrating their freedom, I received an email from my writing professor that my legal memo needed to be rewritten. Law school would inevitably pour over into my Christmas break. Also, during a crazy moment (because I must have lost my mind) I decided it was a good idea to sign up for a January term course. This means my winter break will be 1 week shorter. In addition, I am doing some probono work that requires me to be certified and the certification process will also consume more of my break. All-in-all I’m betting that what is left of my 2 week winter break will be consumed by all of the errands I pushed into the back burner and need to start addressing.

But at the end of the day, my first semester is over.. and I heard its supposed to get easier… can’t really imagine it being any harder.

 

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Study Strategy

I just had my first 3 days of law school. I read diligently over the weekend ahead through my classes for Wednesday. When I say I read, I mean my case books and assigned materials. Which ate up most of my weekend. Thankfully my mom is staying with me and watching trooper while I stay late at school. By late I mean 7pm. I stay till 7pm everyday including weekends and I come home to find a hot meal ready for me. Thank goodness for moms but I know she is leaving on Thursday and I will not be able to stay in school past 5pm daily (and only on weekdays) because I will have to pick up trooper from school.

Knowing this is forcing me to rethink my study strategy. The schedule I posted here is the time I have devoted to law school but am I using my time most efficiently? Would a strategy focusing less on casebooks and more on supplements (E&Es and hornbooks) serve me better? I feel like I’m taking a serious gamble. a $200,000 gamble. But I can also sense that reading these casebooks just isn’t enough. I feel inclined to go out and buy all e&es and hornbooks and read the rules and relevant laws according to casebook outlines. Not really sure if this is more work or less. I’d focus on wikipedia’ing the case, read maybe the judge’s note and 1 dissenting opinion and focus on the law per e&e as referenced here.

I definitely need to reread LEEWs and GTM. Its only been 3 days but I feel like I’m losing myself in the minutia of the details of these cases. Interesting stories but how much of this is actually on the exam?? I started looking over a few exams today. I am not convinced that just reading the cases all semester will put me in a position to stand out on these exams. Just read this article and it suggests CALI. Which I’m trying starting this week.

Also, xeoh85 suggests reading assigned reading and cases first and then turning to supplements. Which seems much less like a gamble.. except… am I really going to have the time to get to all of time as a single mom?

Obviously I need to do the best I can. Here goes week 2…

My New Life

I have a new life now. I have a new life now. And saying it out loud is surreal. I left Florida. The state where I was born and raised. I did something crazy, something no one in my family has done, I left the state! And while I have both positive and negative things to say about South Florida,  that was another life. Another me. I am a different person now. I can feel it.

I’ve been here for just under 10 days but my old life seems an eternity away. I’m not quite certain how I lived the life I did for so long. On a treadmill, not growing. Pursuing endeavors half assed because they fell short of my passion. I didnt really feel motivated by anything.

In contrast, now I wake up with passion, with purpose. This week was my first week of law school. Where I live the dream I’ve had since I was a child. It seems naive and idealistic, but it is amazing to know… that even after everything I’ve been through.. the short cuts, the scenic route, the off streets… I still ended up where I knew I wanted to be.

My first week has been pretty challenging. I’ve missed out on many social events with my peers. I’ve struggled with keeping up with my courses, fighting off my nerves when I get called on in class… and even though its early in the semester, I’m not getting a whole lot of sleep. At first it was because of an imagined spider invasion in my apartment, then fear of getting singled out in class… and alas fears of inadequacy and falling behind.  I’m still  learning my way around this new city. The mountains are breath-taking.

I’ve also met other parents here in the city during Parent Teacher association meeting for trooper’s school. HE starts school next week and I intend to be very active in the local school.

All in all I feel like I’m finally on the right path. Where so many decisions in my life are making sense. I feel blessed by the universe. I would not change a single thing. Not trooper, not my choice of school, location,  not my past, not my relationships, including my decisions to start and end them.

School totally kicked my ass this week but I’m grateful, so fucking grateful.