At least, I don't think I am. Can law school be considered Hell?
I've been having a hard time being motivated this year. Not just to update my blog but with everything. I'm kind of doing the bare minimum right now to get by in class and I am spending way too much time just messing around on the internet.
Life as a 2L - How is it different than 1L year?
The all encompassing aura of fear has dissipated. And not just for me but for everyone. The 1L gunners have mostly quieted down and most of us just want to get through this so we can move on. More people have stopped reading than ever before. Professors do not cold call as much and it almost feels more like an undergrad class. I personally still read for every class but I've basically stopped taking notes beforehand and just fill in my outline during class. Do I understand the material as well as I did last year? Well, no. But I have much more free time. Is it worth it? Undetermined.
The amount of out of class work has skyrocketed. Many of us are on an executive board of at least one club, sometimes more. (I'm on the Elder Law one of course!) We have internships or jobs or are looking for an internship or a job. And we are doing more pro bono work. All of this takes away from our classes and we just have to make it work and hope for the best.
The new baby 1L's look to us for advice. This is probably my favorite part of being a 2L. I tell them not to freak out. Stop taking five pages of notes for every case and no, you do not need to highlight EVERYTHING. It's great.
We're no longer in sections so I am meeting so many other people. As a 1L, you have all your classes with the same 65 or so students. Now I have classes with other 2L's and 3L's. In my Wills class, I'm pretty much the only 2L.
Now that I'm officially in the Elder Law Concentration, I have certain events, office requirements and pro bono opportunities that I have to do. Some of them are a pain but for the most part, I love being surrounded by other students who are interested in the same area I am. Of course, next week when I am stuck in a suit every other day in order to volunteer at a conference, I may not feel the same. But we'll see.
Basically, 2L year is surprisingly different than my first year but all in all, I like it better.
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Dollar signs in my head
So last semester, I had to jump through a ton of hoops to figure out when I could have my bladder surgery scheduled so that I could get reimbursed for my out of pocket expenses and yet, wouldn't have to drop out of school to recover. Well since my surgery ended up being a lot more involved than expected, it also ended up being a lot more expensive. And the bills are coming in. I went to my financial aid office today and found out that when I had talked to them before, they had meant that only the prepay amount would be covered and even though I now owe thousands and thousands of dollars, federal loan laws do not allow me to be reimbursed because it is not not the same school year as the surgery was.
Of course, if I am unable to pay my hospital bills, it will go to collections and the Bar may not allow me to pass the character and fitness portion of the bar.
Oh and I also found out today that due to a rule change, I will no longer be able to keep my job at the Elder Law center once classes start up again.
Oh this is going to be fun.
Of course, if I am unable to pay my hospital bills, it will go to collections and the Bar may not allow me to pass the character and fitness portion of the bar.
Oh and I also found out today that due to a rule change, I will no longer be able to keep my job at the Elder Law center once classes start up again.
Oh this is going to be fun.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Stress relief at it's finest!
So I know I said in my last post that summer break is a lie but I have actually done a few things that are non-law school based. 90% of it relates to yarn. I didn't really think about the fact that I had stopped knitting once classes started but boy am I making up for it now.
I was somewhat out of practice and this picture was before it was washed so it looks a mess. I swear it looks much better now.
And then I made myself a pair of plain black socks for the days I dare to wear pants at my internship. They are the most boring thing I've ever made but they fit their purpose perfectly. Someday I'll make it back to my crazy socks but now is not the time. Sigh.
Now a good part of these were made while I was recovering from my surgery but still. It's an impressive amount of projects!
First I made a baby blanket for my newest niece.
I was somewhat out of practice and this picture was before it was washed so it looks a mess. I swear it looks much better now.
After that, I made another baby blanket for my neighbor.
Then I made a set of dryer balls for my sister (who'd only been asking for them for two years now!)
And then I made myself a pair of plain black socks for the days I dare to wear pants at my internship. They are the most boring thing I've ever made but they fit their purpose perfectly. Someday I'll make it back to my crazy socks but now is not the time. Sigh.
Now a good part of these were made while I was recovering from my surgery but still. It's an impressive amount of projects!
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Life got in the way.
I can not believe it has been so long since I updated this blog. I suck and I am sorry.
Here is a quick snapshot of what I have been up to since I last wrote that kept me away from the blogging universe for so long.
Finals -
I walked out of my con law final feeling like I flunked it 100%. I spent two (of the four) hours on the multiple choice and the first essay and then the final two hours on the last essay because I COULD NOT find out what the issue was with the hypo. Yeah, the law is a little vague but ... It could be a separation of powers issue but probably not ... oh is it?? No, it can't be that. For two hours. Gah. I think I had two pages for the first essay and 10 sentences for the second essay. Some how I pulled it off because this was my second highest grade (and in the end, my highest. See below).
I walked out of my property final thinking I had done okay. And I had!!! I 4.0'd it and my essay was emailed to the class as the model answer. They even gave us our ranking. And then a week later we all got an email saying that there had been an exam error and the class was being converted to pass/fail. My GPA and ranking tanked and I was so angry I couldn't even talk. Actually, I'm still so angry I can't even talk about it. GAH!
I seriously thought I NAILED torts . . . and it was my lowest grade. I don't understand it either. Eh. Such is law school.
Surgery -
Directly after my last final and still during finals week, I had bladder surgery. It was supposed to be minor with a quick recovery period but once they cut into me, the doctor found that it would need more work than previously thought. I woke up three hours later than I was supposed to and went "What did you do to meeeeeee?" My fiancé and I had set it up so he could help me for a few days and then head back to Washington when I was up and about again. Due to the change in plans, I had to have a friend move her and her dogs into my house for three weeks after fiancé left. Two weeks out, I still couldn't dress myself. Yesterday (which is almost 2 months post surgery) I painted my toenails and then realized that all that curling over made my abs cry and I am still in pain from it today. Ridiculous.
Work - So I was supposed to be cleared to start work at the Elder Law center on campus a little over a week after my surgery. Ha. Yeah. That didn't happen. And when I finally was cleared to go back to work, I made such a great impression that I was promptly sent home. I guess I looked like I was in significant amounts of pain. Which to be fair, I was.
Internship - Three weeks after my surgery, I started my internship with a General Magistrate. I like it but I spend 90% of my time feeling incompetent. From what I hear from former interns, everyone feels that way. Hmmm. But on the bright side, I AM LEARNING SO MUCH. I have definitely learned more from the one month of this internship that I have in my entire first year of law school.
The truth about summer break - It is not a break at all. I'm working part time, interning the rest of the week and there was the Law Review write on after finals. (I didn't finish as it was the same week as my surgery. I tried but I just couldn't.) OCR stuff is starting to heat up with cover letters and resume's due next week. I was invited to apply for the Honor's program but even that requires a ton of work. I really need to start working on the paper for that. I am applying for a DOJ internship for this fall and need to fill out all of that paperwork as well. Oh and all the try outs for moot court, trial team and ADR are this month. Don't remind me of this sentence later but I'm almost looking forward to school starting again so I can take a break. Good lord.
Anyway, I can't promise that I will keep this as updated as I would like but I will try to not let it be so long next time. I see that my traffic has increased so if there are any soon to be 1L's reading this, feel free to comment with any questions you have. I'll try to answer as soon as I can.
Here is a quick snapshot of what I have been up to since I last wrote that kept me away from the blogging universe for so long.
Finals -
I walked out of my con law final feeling like I flunked it 100%. I spent two (of the four) hours on the multiple choice and the first essay and then the final two hours on the last essay because I COULD NOT find out what the issue was with the hypo. Yeah, the law is a little vague but ... It could be a separation of powers issue but probably not ... oh is it?? No, it can't be that. For two hours. Gah. I think I had two pages for the first essay and 10 sentences for the second essay. Some how I pulled it off because this was my second highest grade (and in the end, my highest. See below).
I walked out of my property final thinking I had done okay. And I had!!! I 4.0'd it and my essay was emailed to the class as the model answer. They even gave us our ranking. And then a week later we all got an email saying that there had been an exam error and the class was being converted to pass/fail. My GPA and ranking tanked and I was so angry I couldn't even talk. Actually, I'm still so angry I can't even talk about it. GAH!
I seriously thought I NAILED torts . . . and it was my lowest grade. I don't understand it either. Eh. Such is law school.
Surgery -
Directly after my last final and still during finals week, I had bladder surgery. It was supposed to be minor with a quick recovery period but once they cut into me, the doctor found that it would need more work than previously thought. I woke up three hours later than I was supposed to and went "What did you do to meeeeeee?" My fiancé and I had set it up so he could help me for a few days and then head back to Washington when I was up and about again. Due to the change in plans, I had to have a friend move her and her dogs into my house for three weeks after fiancé left. Two weeks out, I still couldn't dress myself. Yesterday (which is almost 2 months post surgery) I painted my toenails and then realized that all that curling over made my abs cry and I am still in pain from it today. Ridiculous.
Work - So I was supposed to be cleared to start work at the Elder Law center on campus a little over a week after my surgery. Ha. Yeah. That didn't happen. And when I finally was cleared to go back to work, I made such a great impression that I was promptly sent home. I guess I looked like I was in significant amounts of pain. Which to be fair, I was.
Internship - Three weeks after my surgery, I started my internship with a General Magistrate. I like it but I spend 90% of my time feeling incompetent. From what I hear from former interns, everyone feels that way. Hmmm. But on the bright side, I AM LEARNING SO MUCH. I have definitely learned more from the one month of this internship that I have in my entire first year of law school.
The truth about summer break - It is not a break at all. I'm working part time, interning the rest of the week and there was the Law Review write on after finals. (I didn't finish as it was the same week as my surgery. I tried but I just couldn't.) OCR stuff is starting to heat up with cover letters and resume's due next week. I was invited to apply for the Honor's program but even that requires a ton of work. I really need to start working on the paper for that. I am applying for a DOJ internship for this fall and need to fill out all of that paperwork as well. Oh and all the try outs for moot court, trial team and ADR are this month. Don't remind me of this sentence later but I'm almost looking forward to school starting again so I can take a break. Good lord.
Anyway, I can't promise that I will keep this as updated as I would like but I will try to not let it be so long next time. I see that my traffic has increased so if there are any soon to be 1L's reading this, feel free to comment with any questions you have. I'll try to answer as soon as I can.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Elder Law Stuff
So I was finally allowed to apply for the elder law concentration! My school doesn't allow us to apply to any concentration until after we finish the first year but I must have been vocal and active enough with my love of elder law because the professor told me to go ahead and apply now so I can get preference for my classes next fall. Whooooo. This is very good because my school does a bidding system so you rank one class as your top choice, another as your second and so on. You're pretty much guaranteed to get your top couple choices but the others are a crap shoot. However, if you are certified in a concentration, you get any of those requirements right off the bat. So you can put them dead last and rank the other ones you want higher. Boom!
Whoops. I wrote this WEEKS ago but apparently never got around to posting it.
Since I wrote the bit above, we had a bit of drama. The registrar's office didn't send it to the Elder Law Coordinator because they forgot there was a reason why I was submitting it early. (We did tell them, they just forgot.) Only I didn't know they hadn't sent it. So on the day that bids were due, I wrote the coordinator and asked if there was a problem with my application. Well, yes, of course there was, they hadn't received it. So I ran over to the Registrar's office where the secretary was like "Oh my god! You're right, I totally forgot to pass that message on with your application! Oh me. Oh my." Then I found out that the lady who had the application was out of the office for the week for a conference and couldn't send it until she came back. (Long after bids were due.) I must have looked upset because the secretary promised to text the lady in charge and see if she could send it sooner. Well, I figured that was a long shot so I completely reordered my bids and hoped to get into at least a couple of the elder law classes. 45 minutes before bids were due, I get an email saying the application had been sent to the elder law center. 7 minutes after that, I got the email that I had been accepted into the elder law concentration. BOOM. Reordered my bids in the last few minutes and submitted them.
We all got our fall schedules today and I got every single class I bid on. Most of my 1L friends are all on at least one wait list if not more. DOUBLE BOOM.
My schedule isn't as bad as the other's either!
All 2L's have to take Professional Responsibilities at 8:30 in the morning (YUCK!!) but many of the other classes are scheduled anywhere from 10am to 10pm. And if you happen to want a class that is only available at 8pm, well your day is going to be a mess. And nobody seemed able to make a schedule that didn't have at least a 3 hour gap somewhere. Gaps = death. Half the time you force yourself to stay on campus and then are exhausted by the time class finally rolls around and the other half you give up and go home. Half of those times you end up taking a nap and don't make it back to school. That gap gives you a 1 in 4 chance of skipping class. Yikes!
However, I have no long gaps; a couple twenty minute ones and one hour long break at lunch time. Totally doable.
My schedule will be three classes on M/W from 8:30 am to 2:40 pm and then only one class on T/Th from 6pm to 8pm. I need that late class because it's a prerequisite to basically every other elder law class but since I was able to load all my other classes onto M/W I don't need to worry about any crazy long gap. I'm sure I will absolutely hate myself when it comes to reading for all three classes for Mondays and Wednesdays but my only other choice was to take a class T/Th from 10 noon and then come back at 6pm. I know myself well enough to know that I would make really stupid life choices with a schedule like that.
Basically, my schedule is better than I could have hoped for. Much much better than most!
Oh, and since I'm only taking four classes, I did enroll in a weekend course. My school has a few of these 1 credit classes where they are only one weekend long and then you are done. We'll have to see how it goes but I've heard great things about the one I signed up for and it should actually be useful.
Now back to studying for finals.
Whoops. I wrote this WEEKS ago but apparently never got around to posting it.
Since I wrote the bit above, we had a bit of drama. The registrar's office didn't send it to the Elder Law Coordinator because they forgot there was a reason why I was submitting it early. (We did tell them, they just forgot.) Only I didn't know they hadn't sent it. So on the day that bids were due, I wrote the coordinator and asked if there was a problem with my application. Well, yes, of course there was, they hadn't received it. So I ran over to the Registrar's office where the secretary was like "Oh my god! You're right, I totally forgot to pass that message on with your application! Oh me. Oh my." Then I found out that the lady who had the application was out of the office for the week for a conference and couldn't send it until she came back. (Long after bids were due.) I must have looked upset because the secretary promised to text the lady in charge and see if she could send it sooner. Well, I figured that was a long shot so I completely reordered my bids and hoped to get into at least a couple of the elder law classes. 45 minutes before bids were due, I get an email saying the application had been sent to the elder law center. 7 minutes after that, I got the email that I had been accepted into the elder law concentration. BOOM. Reordered my bids in the last few minutes and submitted them.
We all got our fall schedules today and I got every single class I bid on. Most of my 1L friends are all on at least one wait list if not more. DOUBLE BOOM.
My schedule isn't as bad as the other's either!
All 2L's have to take Professional Responsibilities at 8:30 in the morning (YUCK!!) but many of the other classes are scheduled anywhere from 10am to 10pm. And if you happen to want a class that is only available at 8pm, well your day is going to be a mess. And nobody seemed able to make a schedule that didn't have at least a 3 hour gap somewhere. Gaps = death. Half the time you force yourself to stay on campus and then are exhausted by the time class finally rolls around and the other half you give up and go home. Half of those times you end up taking a nap and don't make it back to school. That gap gives you a 1 in 4 chance of skipping class. Yikes!
However, I have no long gaps; a couple twenty minute ones and one hour long break at lunch time. Totally doable.
My schedule will be three classes on M/W from 8:30 am to 2:40 pm and then only one class on T/Th from 6pm to 8pm. I need that late class because it's a prerequisite to basically every other elder law class but since I was able to load all my other classes onto M/W I don't need to worry about any crazy long gap. I'm sure I will absolutely hate myself when it comes to reading for all three classes for Mondays and Wednesdays but my only other choice was to take a class T/Th from 10 noon and then come back at 6pm. I know myself well enough to know that I would make really stupid life choices with a schedule like that.
Basically, my schedule is better than I could have hoped for. Much much better than most!
Oh, and since I'm only taking four classes, I did enroll in a weekend course. My school has a few of these 1 credit classes where they are only one weekend long and then you are done. We'll have to see how it goes but I've heard great things about the one I signed up for and it should actually be useful.
Now back to studying for finals.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Last day of classes!
To anyone who is reading this blog before their first year of law school, this next sentence is for you. Your 1L year will fly by so ridiculously fast, you won't even be able to understand it. How did this happen? I don't even know. I'm thinking magic.
Yesterday was my very last day of classes of my 1L year. Once I get through finals (assuming I do) I will be 1/3rd of the way through my law school career. Crazy.
It was a little bittersweet sitting with all my section mates yesterday knowing that we will all be moving on to different classes next fall. We've spent a lot of time together this last year. It's funny, I know many of these people better than I know many of my friends. Even the classmates I never spoke to outside of class. Law school is a funny beast.
Anyway, I need to get cracking on my con law outline. There will be time for nostalgia after finals!
Yesterday was my very last day of classes of my 1L year. Once I get through finals (assuming I do) I will be 1/3rd of the way through my law school career. Crazy.
It was a little bittersweet sitting with all my section mates yesterday knowing that we will all be moving on to different classes next fall. We've spent a lot of time together this last year. It's funny, I know many of these people better than I know many of my friends. Even the classmates I never spoke to outside of class. Law school is a funny beast.
Anyway, I need to get cracking on my con law outline. There will be time for nostalgia after finals!
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