Specpertive

That's perspective, looking a bit backward and a bit forward.

I listened to some 1Ls freaking out on the shuttle yesterday and realized the sounded exactly like I did. It made me smile a bit, and I realized I have really no bitterness left over 1L. I've moved on.

I hope I'm sitting on the shuttle next fall, with a post-grad plan, listening to the 2Ls freaking out about OCI and such. I hope I can smile, knowing that its all going to be ok for them... and for me.

I hope.

1L freak out

The 1Ls on my blogroll are freaking out.

Latest posts are echoing a similar theme -- just starting to get the hang of class but overwhelmed by legal writing assignments, feeling depressed about the harsh curve, feeling adrift because there is no feedback until exam time, not knowing if they're really understanding it all or if they're kidding themselves.

Basically, all the suckage of law school.

I have no words of comfort right now. Because I've been there. And its awful. But maybe knowing others are in the same boat will afford you some degree of solace.

And the ultimate truth about law school is this: its a pie eating contest, where the reward is more pie. If you do well, the reward is the awful emotional rollercoaster of OCI and the tedium of Law Review.

But... you will survive.

Though I think it says something terrible about law school that we're talking about mere survival.

Drama

Continuation of the reflections series.

As a Pre-L: I never expected any of my classmates to act like high schoolers. Or find my blog. Or read my blog and act like high-schoolers about it.

1L from the inside: Regarding the above, I was an idiot.

Also, some law students seriously have nothing better to do than create drama, revel in drama, and talk about drama. OMG! Did you know that A&B are hooking up, C&D are sooo over, and E tried to break up A&B because E likes A? So E totally told B that A hooked up with F at Orientation, which is a gross misrepresentation. They were just talking.*



(* The letters have been changed to protect the guilty, but that is a non-exaggerated story.)

1L survivor:

I learned there are adults among the law students. I don't mean the older students like me. I mean adults -- as young as 23 years old with whom I can have a conversation and enjoy lunch and even have as study partners. It takes patience, but you can find them.

And if you're older, every now and then, you'll get a quizzical look when you reference something pop culture . . . then the slow look of recognition as they recall the incident -- from when her Dad talked about her toddler years.

Reputations are made and broken at weekend parties. If I heard about it -- she who spent most hours not in class hiding out in the lawbrary -- then everyone heard about it. And I try not to judge you for it, but most aren't as charitable.

And yes, if you were that guy at Orientation that asked the student loan rep about something you read about the student loan market in that day's WS Journal, that is how people will refer to you for the rest of the year. You are That Guy.

To That Guy: I am glad you embraced it, but you serve as a warning to all over-eager law students desparate to show everyone in the room that they are smart.

To the rest: don't be That Guy.

More reading

Reflection series continued.

As a Pre-L: I was petrified there would be no way I would have the attention span or discipline to read that much.

As a 1L from the inside: I had the attention span and discipline to read as much as I could, and dealt with the fall-out when it came.

In a class like Con Law, where the nightly reading just became ridiculous, I made friends with High Court casebriefs and Erwin Chemerinski's treatise*. I often read as many pages as my casebook-reading cohorts, but I think I got more out of it. Downside -- Professor would ask about details of note cases that Erwin & High Court didn't cover. And it felt like she would always ask me. I figured if Erwin didn't cover it, it wasn't important. So when called out, I would just say "Sorry, that answer isn't in my notes."

Also, I stopped carrying my casebook to class altogether, so I couldn't page-scramble and pretend to have read the note case.

She was "kind" enough to move on. Anyway, she never gave me too hard a time because I was always able to answer her "big picture" and "making connections" questions. Effective strategies for you? Probably not. But Con Law was my best grade of the semester -- indeed I earned one of the best grades she gave. (Thank you Erwin!)

As a 1L Survivor:

If night reading doesn't work, go to bed early and try 4:00 a.m. reading. Worked better for me.

When I am on a reading tear and really in the mood, I can go for hours. If I am forcing myself to work, I need to take short breaks every 10 minutes or so. (Check email, stand and stretch, read a blog). Work with you attention span, not against it, or you'll be useless.


* because I know at least one pre-L is reading this, the book is from the Aspen Treatise series. Its a soft-cover, over 1000 pages. I think its just called Constitutional Law.

Looking back on 1L: Reading

I decided to look back at where I was this time last year -- the summer before law school -- and reflect on how the year turned out. What were my expectations? What were my fears? So I clicked on the Pre-L label and read some old posts ... or what survived after the great blog migration of 10/06 anyway. It was an interesting exercise for me, so I decided to share some insights for the current crop of Pre-Ls.

The post was getting really long, so it'll be broken over five (or more) posts in the days or weeks to come. Each is reflection is from three perspectives.

As a Pre-L: I expected a lot of reading, more than I ever encountered in my life.

As a 1L from the inside: Shit, that is a LOT of reading for Thursday. A syllabus would be nice --advance notice? No? Hmm. Ok. Put up and shut up. Thank you sir, may I have another?

As a 1L survivor: I became a really efficient reader, which is very helpful in my summer job -- some of the reading I have to do is far more obtuse and unfamiliar than any casebook ever was.

Also, I heart the E&E series -- I know my learning style intimately now. I discovered I need an overview of the subject before I get caught up in the minutiae of the case reading. Perspective, use it or lose it.