New post at The Shark about balancing law school and life with my handy, dandy hot pink planner!
One day searching the web on a whim
I found the presence of law limericks quite slim
So here’s one I penned
Read it in depth, or instead
Read it like your case books and skim
A NEGLIGENCE FORMULA
Some would say negligence is bland
For others it’s hard to understand
But it’s not so opa-ic
And almost algebraic
When guided by one learned hand
Photo: Brisbane Falling / Flickr (It’s an apple tort)
I didn’t want it to happen, but it did.
At the start of this first week of law school, I was too terrified to speak up in class. Over the course of the week, however, I evolved from thinking about raising my hand to actually raising it above my head to reluctantly volunteer information.
That’s not necessarily a good thing.
Before I started school, I vowed that I would quash my Steve Urkel or Hermione Granger-like tendencies to raise my hand whenever the professor raised a question.
I vowed this not as a strategic move, but rather as a way to stop myself from buying into the mindset that I had to show my legal prowess in class in order to establish my place in the 1L pack.
I didn’t want to be one of those people who strutted around making their legal pecs dance in order to “sound smart”, because, honestly, even as a 1L I know that what matters the most is how one performs on that final exam and not how much of a wunderkind your classmates or even your professors think you are.
Those thoughts went out the door when I saw how eager some of my fellow classmates were to unzip their legal zippers and lay out their legal junk on the table to measure whose just happened to be bigger.
“Oh yeah? Take a look at this!”
I can’t attest to what my fellow classmates were thinking, but I think I know why I bought into the temptation to show just how big my law balls are.
Many of us 1Ls are accomplished enough that, when we go into law school, we know what it’s like to be the big, um, fish in each of respective disciplines. It’s only in law school that we learn just how small we are.
We feel compelled to perform and posture because of feelings of inadequacy, that maybe we’re not as smart as we thought we were, that maybe we’re not cut out for law school.
Let’s call it the 1L Napoleon Complex.
I have to keep reminding myself of that old adage that size doesn’t matter. It’s what you do with it that counts.
If people tell you that law school work is a piece of cake, they’re lying. There’s reading. Tons and tons of reading.
But Teenie Me says she’s got it down. She read the first week’s worth of homework over the weekend.
Yeah. She’s a gunner.
Teenie Me is super ambitious. On the first day of orientation at The Blawgirl’s law school, the dean of students stated that there could be only one No. 1 student. Yup. Law school is kind of like Highlander, only without the kilts and big ass swords.
Teenie Me aims to be that student and has already threatened The Blawgirl, stating that she will hide case books toward finals.
The photo at the left was taken last week, even before the The Blawgirl had gotten her mile high stack of casebooks and supplements.
Head on over to The Shark to read about The Blawgirl’s first day of law school orientation!
I’m not sure exactly what law school will bring when I get started at orientation next Wednesday. I won’t get my schedule until then. I don’t know what to expect of the teachers I get. I don’t know if I’m going to kill myself over the work load.
The only thing I do know for certain is I’m going to be well caffeinated during the course of the next year.
That’s because there is no shortage of coffee houses in the general vicinity of the Chapman University School of Law, which I live just a block and a half from. On a recent walk to the local library, I passed by at least half a dozen coffee shops and even more restaurants that serve specialty coffee drinks.
Add those to the coffee maker I have at home, and you have a jittery Blawgirl. Hurrah!
Searched for “cafe” around Old Town Orange (Calif.) in Google Maps:
Photo: I Can Has Cheezburger
After a bajillion and a half trips to Target, three local Goodwillls, Walmart, Ross Dress for Less and Marshall’s, and after sanding, priming and painting at least three pieces of old furniture, I have finally settled into the humble abode I will be calling home for, hopefully, the next three years.
And although humble is an apt term for my little studio apartment, I love finally having a bathroom, kitchen and living quarters all to myself.
No more knocking on the walls or floors to ask family members and their friends to please cease their crappy music and unimportant-yet-lengthy conversations because I have to work early the next morning. No more going to the kitchen or to the bathroom in my PJs to find a stranger wandering through the fridge or coming out of the loo. No more sitting on the bathroom seat and immediately sitting up because of some mysterious wet spot. *shudder*
I’m free!
Well, at least for the next week and a half until law school orientation starts. After that, I’ll be married to law school, who will be a bitch of a roommate.
In The Shark Attack, the Blawgirl brings you a list of links to blog posts published at The Shark, a blawg written by and for law students.
Holy crap! Just realized I haven’t posted one of these in several weeks. Here’s a rundown of stories written by the Blawgirl published at The Shark. Chompy, chomp.
- Don’t count on those loan forgiveness programs. You know that plan you have? You know. The one to go to law school in order to help people, and to not worry about student loan debt because, hey, those public service loan forgiveness programs will help you. Yeah. Turns out those might not be as reliable as you think.
- ABA’s accreditation review process may signal that it’s finally heeding criticism. Earlier this month, the American Bar Association announced that it was planning to overhaul its law school accreditation process. But what exactly are some of the ills that its critics hope it fixes? Clickety, click to find out.
- UC Irvine, continuing a possibly overly-rosy view of the itself, thinks its timing is good! Is the California budget crisis going to affect the fledgling UC Irvine School of Law? Not really, according to school officials.
- Law school: busy hating on your pretty little mac. I am in love with my Mac. Apparently, law schools are still in the courtship, will-they-won’t-they phase.
- Perspective: the secret to law school success? I’ve read tons of blogs and wee bits of advice from current and former law students. My favorite bit of advice so far comes from a brain doctor and a lawyer lady who take a step back from picking at the small things and take a look at the bigger picture.
- Craigslist “attorney” trying to recruit young things. The latest Craigslist cautionary tale comes to you from The OC, where a dude posing as an attorney tried to recruit law students for his law firm. In a perfect world, this dude would probably never work in this town again. In reality, he’ll probably get a movie made about him. Starring Leo. Directed by Spielberg. Which I’ll probably watch.
- Law schools slow to hop on Web 2.0 train. While media scramble to out-Twitter other Twits, law schools have been slow to incorporate social media into their websites.
- Save an annoyed boyfriend, hug a lawyer. Sometimes that angry person just needs a hug. Law students and lawyers are no exception.
- Great news for those indebted: new federal loan programs. If you currently have or are planning on taking on huge student loans, a new federal program effective July 1 can help you deal with the debt. Some borrowers can even have their student debt forgiven after 10 years if they work in public service jobs. Not bad.
- Much ado about Yoo: Padilla’s civil suit rages on. Tenured UC Berkeley law professor and torture memo writer John Yoo is in trouble again. This time, a convicted terrorist is bringing a civil suit against Yoo for Yoo’s role in memos that he say authorized his torture while in custody. A judge, who was appointed by Dubya, gave the green light for the case to continue.
Photo: Richard Ling / Flickr
Surprise! Law school students on Twitter have a lot to say about the law and law school. The Blawgirl compiles some of her favorites from the past 24 hours or so.
We’ve all heard how competitive law school can be, but I wonder what madness Tweeter @shiratic encountered that prompted her to ponder this:
I was a vegetarian for about five years, then I discovered that sausages and the animal(s) that go into them are delicious. But I do have to agree with Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg, Prince of Bismarck (yes, that is just one person) that learning what exactly goes into those sausages might not be the best thing if I want to retain my regard for them. The same goes for the law. [@ericdkuzma]
After months of working on and bitching about law school applications, this next tweet just annoyed me. [@dunord]
Despite the reputation that lawyers have, at least one law student states that he will have no problem announcing his lawyer-ness to the world. Good luck with that. Might as well write “slash my tires, break my windows and steal my GPS, please!” on the side of your car with neon spray paint. [@noelbagwell]
[@shiratic, @ericdkuzma, @dunord, @noelbagwell]
In The Shark Attack, the Blawgirl brings you a list of links to blog posts published at The Shark, a blawg written by and for law students.
A grout way to cheat. Bathroom breaks aren’t just for gathering pithy bits of wisdom anymore. Some law students see it as an opportunity to get ahead in their law school exams.
Anti-John Yoo protests at Berkeley’s commencement ceremonies: round two! Surprise! Students and alumni were expected to protest Capt. Waterboard John Yoo during U.C. Berkeley’s commencement ceremonies.
Shame on you, law school cheaters. Shame on you. Everyone has an opinion on cheaters. The Blawgirl is no exception. They are idiots.
Supreme Court nominee round-up. Before Sonia Sotomayor was announced as President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee earlier this week, the blawgs, blogs and pundits were doing what they do best: speculating! At The Shark, we scoured the Interwebz to find some little-known factoids about the possible nominees. Check them out: Possible SCOTUS nominees way back when: Kagan and Sotomayor in law school, SCOTUS shortlist: one scholar and two politicians, SCOTUS shortlist: The man, man
0L dates 1: Turns out law school puts some pressure on romance. As you know the Blawgirl is dating the Boyfriend, who just finished up his first year in law school. At The Shark, the Blawgirl reflects on the Boyfriend’s past 1L year.
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