The First Week!

I know that most of you have been waiting for the update on my first week of law school. I guess the best place to start is letting you know that I survived it! Starting with a two-day orientation (Thursday and Saturday) where we actually attended our legal writing class both days, along with various presentations to get us prepared for our first year of law school. The official classes started on Monday and we had reading assignments due that first night. So, I actually spent the Sunday before classes started in the Law Library for about five hours trying to get a head start on class. Now, FIVE hours in the library, uninterrupted, would have been enough for me to get through TWO weeks of homework in undergrad... Law school... not so much. In five hours, I was able to complete... FIVE case briefs. That's right... 5. Let me put it in perspective. One of my classes had 7 case briefs for the week. The other had 5. The third class (Legal Writing) had about 45 pages of reading. All for one week. I had just spent 5 hours in the library and had not finished one whole classes work! Uh-oh.

Now, I realize that this is a new way of reading for me. I mean, this is no Harry Potter book! And, I also realize that as time progresses, I will be able to draw the important points out more quickly and therefore get through them faster. Now, I know what you are thinking... "That's great, Jen! You are going to BREEZE through law school!" EXCEPT for one thing... the reading assignment for the first week was very small as compared to what is coming my way for the rest of the semester! So, right now, I am focused on finding balance. I have spent a substantial amount of time this weekend trying to get through the entire weeks' assignments so that next week is not so crazy. As of now, I feel pretty good about the coming week.

As for the actual classroom experience... it has been great! The general theme you hear from all of the professors, any practicing attorneys and anyone who has been through the law school experience is this (in some form or another)... "The law school experience was one of the most enjoyable, tiring, and exciting times of my life." I have not heard one person who has completed law school say "I hated it." Now, I am sure there are some people who dropped out who would say that... but I don't think I will be one of those people. Right now, I am playing the "quiet observer". I do a lot of listening and watching. I have not been called on directly yet (thank goodness!) but I have raised my hand on a couple of occasions to add my input to the discussion. There is a saying that "no good attorney asks a question they don't already know the answer to", well I am following a similar mantra "don't raise your hand unless you are fairly certain you know what the hell you are talking about". I am sure I will become more confident as time moves on and I will begin to believe I know what I am talking about much more than I actually do... which will be an entirely different blog update :).

Well... I think that is about all I have time to write for now. I have to get back to Legal Writing and I still have to brief all the cases I read yesterday. Oh, and yes... I realize that most of you may have no idea what I mean when I use these terms so I will try make some shorter posts moving forward to explain those things (for those of you who are interested). Thanks again for all the support, all the good wishes, and all the love!!