I'm only about halfway though my first semester of law school and it's already a little too fuzzy for me to remember all my expectations but here's a quick summary:
Pre-Law School Me: "All the law school students I've met are all such Negative Nancys about the first year, always complaining and whining. It's just a lot of reading, it can't be that bad. All you have to learn to do is not procrastinate and get stuff done. No big deal. I'm so excited, whooo hooo, can't wait!"Now for the reality...
Weekend before first day of class: Started the seemingly harmless first day reading assignments only to find out that when reading a dense law opinion, three pages can take up to an hour to brief, let alone understand. This was a frustrating kick in the butt. Spent all weekend reading and then when I was finally finished for Monday's classes I was terrified that I didn't understand the cases I had read to the extent that my classmates might. This would all be well and good if it weren't for the infamous Socratic Method I knew was awaiting me.
Side note on the Socratic Method- I'm not a fan of public speaking, or even speaking in groups. I'm also not really a fan of small talk. I don't like expanding on my verbal answers and I hate BS-ed responses. I like simplicity and getting to the point. Either I know the answer or I don't. But when you're called on in law school "I don't know" is never an acceptable answer. Considering the amount of times you're called on, it's not possible to know all the answers. You are supposed to reason your way to some answer. Definitely not something I'm good at on the fly. I'm fine at it if you give me some time and I can write/edit it, but I can't talk it out in front of 70 people. Basically, I have the fear of being called on in public, PLUS the fear of trying to BS some type of response, which makes the Socratic Method more than a little daunting.Once JD classes began: No matter how much reading I did, the stress was immense. I was so terrified of getting called on and not knowing the answer. After reading 35+ pages for each class, the professor would then ask about one specific word that a judge used to express XYZ. He would even goes as far to make the whole class wait until you re-read the entire case until you found that one little word he wanted. No matter how detailed your reading was there was always more the professor could expect you to explain to the class.
I couldn't eat some mornings. I was a monster on the metro ride to school. Arya had to learn to stop trying to engage me in any conversation because of the inevitable attack that would come out of me. (I've learned that I need to deal with stress better...).
And all of that was only the first week. Then my legal writing course began. It was probably the class I most looked forward to. The practical layering skills, unlike what was taught in my core classes. These 2 credits seemed manageable until my first memo assignment came around and I sat down at 7pm to begin and wasn't done with a basic draft until 4:30am.
That's enough complaining. Most of the above was drafted around the end of the first month of classes. I've learned to manage it all much better now. Still TONS of work, especially since I have many outside of school obligations this month (more to come on that stuff later). Even though law school hasn't been all rainbows and butterflies, I really do love the academic challenge. I love that the first year is a tough/dark time for even some of the more brilliant law students and the fact that it's so difficult makes it all the more rewarding for me to get through each week. Then again, I may change my tune and want to quit again by tomorrow morning.
Now back to my infinite amounts of reading. I've learned a lot so far, but I still haven't managed to stop procrastinating (see evidence above). The hard part of the semester hasn't even begun yet... studying for finals. Wish me luck! Hopefully I come out alive in December.
