law school: August 2004 Archives

I remember during my first Ironman, about 500 yards into the swim, after the madness of the mass start was over and I had settled into my groove, thinking Holy crap, I'm DOING it! I'm doing an Ironman! Thats kind of how I feel now.

I made it through my first full week of school and I must say, I'm totally totally digging it! I fully realize that (like in that first 500 yards of an Ironman swim) things are going to get much much harder... but I'm ready for that. At least I know that the subject matter greatly interests me to the point that I can go to my parents' house and sit at the dinner table and tell them excitedly about case after case (my favorite thus far is the one about the dude who thought he could actually buy a jet with 7 million Pepsi Points because it was advertised in the commercial...).

After a couple days of getting to campus a half hour before my first class and having to park a zillion miles away and haul my 130 lb self AND 40 lbs worth of books/laptop/coffee to the law school I have made it a point to get there super early so I can park across the street. Don't get me wrong, I honestly wouldn't mind the walking if it weren't for the fact that my back aches by the time I get to where I'm going from the load.

So I've been leaving for campus around 7:30 to snag one of the last spots in the close parking lot. I dont' have class till 9:30 or 10:30 every day so I've headed down to the library with my books and my computer and my coffee and set up shop in a study carrell in the basement. Something about starting my day in the quiet, peaceful library is incredibly calming and relaxing. I get a lot of studying done and don't feel like I'm running around like the proverbial headless chicken. Of course I cringe when the alarm goes off at 6, but once I'm there, I'm pretty happy about it.

I survived my first Socratic exchange. Thankfully I knew it was coming and I was prepared. I had to ask him to repeat a question once and I flat out said "I don't know" when the creative juices stopped flowing on something he had asked me, but I'd say it went pretty well. No ridiculing on his part, no cardiac arrests on mine.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it was fun, but it was somewhat exhilarating and challenging and I'm not totally dreading doing it again.

Aside from the moment of panic when the poor girl was called on in the first 10 seconds of class and we all thought we were next with no warning and no "hello" from the professor, I'm loving it. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with work, but I'm finding that I'm not minding it at all and that the reading that seemed so difficult the first time I tried to plow through it is already starting to make sense. My brain seems to be adjusting to a new style of writing pretty quickly.

I'm finding the lectures to be quite interresting. I was a little worried going in that I would be incredibly bored in law school until I was finally studying the areas of the law that I thought would be what I wanted to practice (environmental law for those of you following along at home), but thats not the case at all. I'm really enjoying (in a totally geeky way) reading the cases and trying to apply the rules I learned in the previous cases to slightly different scenarios.

Its challenging, but not in a bad way. Not at all!

In my small group class today our professor who is a wonderfully friendly, funny, quirky guy warned us that our prof for the next class likes to pick one student at the beginning of class on the first day and then question them throughout the entire lecture. I don't think we really believed it, and if we did, we didn't realize the extent to which this was going to occur.

So we're all sitting in the next class and in walks in the prof. He walked in, looked around the room, picked up the roster, eyed it for a second and said "Ms. Jones? What can you tell me about Goddard v. Winchell?" Those were the FIRST words from his mouth. No hello. No introduction. No syllabus. The room grew silent very very quickly as Ms. Jones (or whatever her name was) answered question after question. Everyone around me looekd stunned, and I felt like I was going to throw up (until I realized poor Ms. Jones was going to be the Socratic method's sole victim today). After 45 minutes of this, and with 5 minutes left of class he informed us that for the rest of the semester he will be going down the rows talking to 4 or 5 people per lecture. He had only done this to scare us.

As luck would have it, I'm in line to go tomorrow. *deep breath*

... and it wasn't half bad!

I think my first day of law school was destined to go well considering the night and morning I had leading up to it! I really really had a great time hitting the town last night and I woke up snuggled in between my boyfriend and a puppy... does life GET any better?!

I don't really have much to say other than that the experience was exciting and intimidating all at the same time. After a summer of feeling my brain turn to much, I liked the feeling of engaging all those brain cells once again, this time in a completely different and completely new way. For the most part my classes were interresting and a bit confusing and I once again found the law students to be friendly and kind and helpful.

Its funny how it has ALREADY become apparent who certain personalities are in the class. How there's people who feel the need to respond to everything and comment on everything and answer every question. It seems like those same people are also the ones who already speak like lawyers. I'm trying to not let it intimidate me. In talking to a few of my non-super sophisticated speaking classmates this afternoon someone made the point that they don't want to talk like that... at least not all the time... and that their family, friends, clients don't really want to hear them talk like that either, which is kind of an interresting thought. I feel that in order to do this job you have to be able to connect with those who don't know all the legal jargon, and I wonder if these type of people CAN switch off the lawyer-speak long enough to convere with a non-lawyer... especially if they're already talking like that, after only day 1.

Well, today it begins.

I'm a little nervous. Fortunately my pal Tina and her puppy came in town last night so I was thoroughly distracted! It was SO great to see Tina (finally!)! We hung out in downtown Larryville... had coffee at La Prima Tazza, food at La Parilla, and beer at Free State (of course!). She let me pretend Sahara was mine for a while which was cool 'cause I've always dreamt of sitting on the porch at Free State with my pooch.

I love hanging out with Tina. She's one of those fun vibrant geeky-cool people that I just love to surround myself with! Plus, she likes dogs and coffee.

She even let the boytoy and I sleep with her puppy who is SUCH good snuggler! Sahara spent most of the night stretched out between us and we were totally snuggled in around her. I think all three of us were very happy!

I told Sahara this morning that I wanted to stay in bed with her where it was safe, but instead, I must go face law school! Wish me luck!

So I've spent much of the afternoon attempting to do my first day assignments for school. I have understood some of it... but much of it makes no sense to me at all. There are so many words and phrases and notations that I have never seen before and trying to figure each of them out is making forward progress very slow and painful (much like my running ;)

Thank god I've been warned that the first couple weeks are rough and I'm supposed to feel lost/confused/freaked out/overwhelmed...

I'm just hoping I can get everything done before my pal Tina (and her adorable puppy) get here tomorrow!

I was so so excited to buy my books today (geek geek geek)! I thought I'd get there early and beat the crowds... ha! I arrived at the law school around 9:30 or so and there was already a looooong line to get books. I ended up right behind a girl from my small section and we had a good 30 minutes to chat and get to know eachother, which was cool.

I easily ended up with twice as many books (weighing three times as much) as I ever had for undergrad. I could barely carry them out to the car, which means that I've either become considerably weak since Lake Placid, or we have a WHOLE LOT of reading to do over the next several months. I fear it may be the latter.

Orientation was today. I will admit that I was quite nervous. I didn't get much sleep last night and when I walked into the law school building and saw everyone sitting around I felt a surge of both anxiety and excitement. This was what I had been waiting for.

Much like at a triathlon, the first thing to do was pickup my packet. I got a good giggle at how much it felt like I was checking in for a race. Tell 'em your name... they hand you a big envelope with your name and number on it filled with papers (altho not any goodies like at races)!

For the first half of the day I found myself sitting next to this pleasantly sarcastic dude who I later found out lives practically next door to me! Since I live way out on the edge of town, this was a nice surprise! The dean spoke and then went around and introduced all of the faculty and then turned the floor over to the admissions director. She went through a long list of accomplishments and activities of people in my class.... including "completing an Ironman triathlon... a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike, and a marathon...all in the same day". When she said that the professor who I was sitting next to (and had chatted with previouisly) turned to me and jokingly said "Was that you?" I informed him that it was and the look on his face was priceless. I may not have finished one of these things recently, but I have earned the Ironman degree... and thats still pretty big.

The day was pretty uneventful. Listened to lots of speakers and had lunch with our small groups. I talked to a lot of my classmates and think I will actually really enjoy their company. I thoroughly enjoy being around bright, intelligent, well-spoken people (even if I am not always one of them!) and this was definitly the case at school!

I must have been exhausted because when I got home I fell asleep on the couch and slept RIGHT through the men's 200 freestyle... probably the most hyped swimming events of these Olympics. Thankfully I was awake to watch Natalie Coughlin swim to gold in the 100 back.

Tomorrow I have to go to campus to run a bunch of errands. There's book and parking pass buying to do, a new KU ID to get, and studying to be done for Thursday (ok, that probably won't get done till Wednesday).

So tomorrow begins my journey. And I'm nervous. But about stupid things. What will I wear? What will I take with me? Mainly, I'm really really excited to get started.

Its 9:38 a.m. on a hot and sunny Tuesday morning and I'm sitting here drinking coffee from my new mug and listening to Natalie Merchant whilst attempting to read Cardozo's "The Nature of the Judicial Process", which was on my summer reading list. Does the fact that I am somewhat enjoying this make me a complete geek? (Its ok.. you can tell me... I can handle it...)

I think whats most exciting is that reading this book is making me realize how completely thrilled I am to be studying something completely different. Its like considering the prospect of mountain biking after almost solely riding on the road for the past 3 years... a rejeuvenating change of focus. Me likes.