Surfacing

I am officially done with my first year of law school, so I thought I'd post an update. I have a few more posts in draft stage that I plan to post over the next couple of weeks, then I guess we'll just see what happens after that. I definitely won't be as busy over the summer, but at the same time I probably won't have as much to post about.

The rest of first semester went fine. It was busy, but I wasn't overly stressed. The study period before exams was actually less stressful than the regular semester because we had a full week between our last class and our first exam. I only studied during the day and felt like it was just the right amount of time. I mostly studied at home which probably contributed to the somewhat relaxed feeling of study period. I have heard that there is a lot of tension in the air at school during study period so I'm glad I missed out on that. My exams went fine also. I walked out of each feeling pretty good but having no real idea of how I did. It seems impossible to know how you did on a test with no right answers and where your grade depends on how everyone else did.

The first week of the winter break was really busy with holiday stuff and then just after that settled down we took a trip to Mexico with my family. It wasn't exactly a relaxing vacation, in part because of the curious toddler and the non-baby-proofed hotel room and in part because we all got sick (not from the water or food or anything, just a bug we all passed around). Most of my grades came out while we were in Mexico, which I wasn't expecting (I'd been told not to expect them before February) and they were fine. Nothing stellar, but all above the curve.

Second semester started out a little rough. We got back from the trip one day before classes started, and then during the first (or was it second?) week of classes the little guy got a pretty bad stomach bug. I missed several classes to take him to the doctor and stay home with him. And, of course, I got sick too.

After we all recovered I started getting serious about my summer job search. I had sent out several applications before Christmas but hadn't heard from any body. I went to a job fair, I went on a bunch of interviews and I kept getting rejected. I had had a mock interview and the interviewer had told me I did well, so I don't think that my interviewing skills were the problem. I think I just wasn't what people were looking for. I was a 1L looking for a public interest job related to children with a background in government and information technology. I was counting on my community service experience to show my commitment to public service and interest in children's issues, but it wasn't super impressive. By March I was getting really worried that I wouldn't find anything. Luckily new jobs kept popping up on PSLawNet and so I kept sending out applications. I became expert at re-writing my cover letter as I broadened my search beyond what I though I originally wanted to do and I learned about some cool organizations. One of which I hope to work at next year. Anyway, I finally got a job in April, with three weeks of classes left, and I am really excited about it. I think that it is the perfect job for me this summer, I think I will be able to find a good note topic there, and I think it will help me get a job at the organization I want to work at next summer.

So anyway, I was distracted through much of second semester by the job search. I was less engaged in my classes second semester even though I would have thought that I would have been more interested in them than the first semester classes, just based on the subject matter. And it was not the fault of my professors. They were all really great and really engaging and entertaining. I think that I just had less energy and enthusiasm second semester. For that reason, and also because the job search and moot court stuff took up so much time, I felt that the second semester of law school was much harder than the first semester. I did get really stressed out and I think it affected me physically, because my stomach was acting weird for a couple months in March and April, I kept thinking I must be pregnant, but the pregnancy tests kept coming back negative. Anyway, that cleared up before exams. We had our full week of study period before exams again, although this time I had more to do because I hadn't really done any outlining during the semester, my notes were spotty in places, and I hadn't really briefed the cases. But I still felt that I had enough time to prepare and I think exams went fine. I haven't gotten my grades yet though, so who knows?

After exams I had a couple days off before the writing competition for law review. I got my hair cut, ran some errands and watched some TV. We had a week for the competition which was just an essay, no bluebooking. I spent about 24 hours total on it. Six hours the first day, then a one-day break with the little guy, and then four or five hours for each of the next four days. I feel pretty good about it. If I don't get on law review, I hope to get on the one specialty journal that I applied to.

And that brings us up to the present. I have a week off before I start my summer internship and will be spending it going to the park with the little guy and taking him to visit his cousin and his grandma.

Reality Calling

As you have no doubt noticed I have not been posting much lately. It seems to happen to a lot of bloggers who start blogging so enthusiastically before law school -- once school starts free time disappears and when faced with a choice of sleep or blog, sleep wins. If I could think a post into existence this blog would be full of posts, but unfortunately it takes time and effort to write a post -- I am not the kind of person who can just dash a post off in five minutes. And blogging is pretty much at the bottom of my priority list right now (and for the foreseeable future). So I am taking a (possibly permanent) hiatus from blogging. I will leave the blog up for now in case I decide to restart, but for now you can consider this goodbye. I wish all the moms in or thinking about law school best of luck!

First Exam and First Sleepover

I had my first law school exam today. Sure it was pass/fail, but it was still a law school exam. It was a four-hour in-class limited open book (course books and personally prepared notes and outlines only) exam for Legal Methods. There was one traditional hypothetical type question and one policy question. I spent three hours on the hypo and only one hour on the policy question. I couldn't think of much to say on the policy question, although I really should have anticipated the question and prepared an answer ahead of time, but I only had one day to study, so I didn't have time to do everything that I theoretically should have done. I think I passed, so I am not worried about it. We are actually going to get comments back which hopefully will be helpful for refining my exam-taking technique for the real ones in December.

We had the day off yesterday to study. Our nanny also had yesterday and today off, so in the morning I took the little guy out to his grandmother's house yesterday to spend the night -- his first night away from me. He had fun on the train and laughed when we got to our car and he saw his carseat and some old toys of his inside. He must have recognized them even though it's been a couple months since he has seen them. Anyway, there was only about five minutes for the drop off because I had to jump on another train going back into the city. So I quickly showed grandma how to fold the stroller and got the little guy buckled into his carseat and then leapt back up the stairs to the train platform just in time to step on the train.

Back home I worked on my outlines and read and briefed a case our professor distributed to us on Wednesday that he promised would "figure significantly" in the exam. I spent about 8 or 9 hours total preparing for the exam.

I had a leisurely morning this morning, kind of enjoying having the time to myself. Before the little guy was born I used to enjoy having my personal time in the morning, because I get up significantly earlier than hubby. Since the little guy was born however I haven't had that time to myself (or anytime to myself) so it was nice. Not that I don't enjoy our morning time, but most days it is a little more hectic with trying to get everybody fed (pets included), and dressed (pets not included) and get out the door.

So anyway, our exam was scheduled from 10-2, and I was worried about being hungry in the middle, so on the way I bought a breakfast sandwich -- two eggs and sausage on a roll. That did the trick. I wasn't hungry at all until about the last 20 minutes of the exam. But then right after the exam I had to rush downtown to catch the train back to grandma's to pick the little guy up. I ate a luna bar on the way out there and then on the way home I stopped and bought a couple of cheese tamales from a street vendor for a buck each. We got home around 5:45 -- just in time to eat dinner and put the little guy to bed. He was tired because he didn't really take a nap at grandma's, but he was in good spirits. He had fun with grandma -- she had lots of new (to him) toys for him to play with and he got to run around in the yard and go to court and go shopping for wedding dresses (not for him). Although he didn't really nap yesterday either, he apparently went right to sleep last night, which was my biggest fear about him spending the night away. And he went right to sleep tonight too. So everything went well.

Family Time

The first week of "real" classes went well. The reading load has been a lot lighter so far than in legal methods, giving me time to contemplate whether I want to get involved in any extra-curricular type activities. There is a pro-bono activity I am interested in but it requires a 4 hour/week commitment for the whole year and I just don't think I can make that commitment four weeks into law school. The other thing I have been seriously considering is running for the board of my law school's women's association.

One thing I am concerned about in general is that a lot of activities and events at the law school start around 5 or 6, which is prime family time for me. 5 is dinner time and at 6 we start the little guy's bath and bedtime routine. Although it wouldn't be a huge deal to miss a night here and there I wouldn't want to make it a regular thing because that is the main part of the time I get to spend with the little guy. I want to be involved in things that aren't strictly academic while I am in law school, but if I am not going to be at the school between 4pm and 7pm is it even possible to be involved in anything on more than a casual level? I hope so.

Notes from the First Week of Law School

I have now completed five days of law school classes. So far I am really enjoying it. Last week was hard because we didn't get our assignment for the first day until two days before classes started and it was a long assignment so I didn't complete it until the night before and then each night I was reading for the next day's class which made me feel like I was kind of behind because I wasn't ahead. But over the weekend I was able to get ahead a little bit and now I am reading two days ahead, which makes me feel more relaxed. It is amazing but we are actually going to get through an 800+ page textbook in less than three weeks.

Oh, and my professor is super-nice. He actually said that if anybody feels that the prospect of being called in causes them such anxiety that they feel it actually interferes with their ability to learn he will take them out of the rotation. He calls on a lot of people each class and people also volunteer. I haven't been called on yet, but the prospect doesn't really scare me, I have felt prepared enough to answer the questions he has been asking so far.

My routine is working out pretty well. I usually have two or three hours to study during the day and then do another two or three hours at home after the little guy goes to bed. Hubby watched the little guy on one weekend day so I could go to the library and study and the other weekend day was my day off from law school.

I have been spending three or four hours a day with the little guy, which seems like still a good amount of time, but I noticed when I spent that day with him on the weekend that he looked different to me, like he had grown over the week, and because I was spending less time with him I now had the perspective to see the changes.

I also changed over the week... I lost two pounds. I guess the mile walk to and from law school each day is doing me good. I also checked out the University's gym this week and plan on going there twice a week starting tomorrow. I am also thinking of signing up for a yoga class in the fall.