Winding Down, Heating Up

As the semester winds down, things are heating up for me. I have some major decisions to make before summer rolls around, but it isn't so much rolling as crashing toward me like an out of control freight train.

There are a lot of trains in your life when you're in law school. I thought when torts was over I'd be free from railroad cases, but no, they pop up in ConLaw all the time.

The figurative train here is Internship v. Spanish Classes. My university offers an expedited program during summer, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to do it. It's been about five years since I took Spanish and I plan to be fluent before I finish law school. Every time I go to the immigration clinic to volunteer I wish I were fluent. It's time to get on it, and I have a feeling that I'm not going to have any more time on my hands as school progresses.

I'm excited by so many different opportunities it's hard to choose, but the general advice I've been getting is that it doesn't matter. I could take the summer off and spend it with Abby if I wanted to and it wouldn't affect my future at all, other than the fact that I'd be happy to have the break. That's the beauty of not going into Big Law, your 1L summer doesn't completely define your future.

I could do the judicial clinic, which would be cool, but I'm not particularly interested in it. I probably should be, but there it is. Judges in my conservative state, are somewhat contrary to my personal ideology. Working for one would be educational, but I'm not entirely sure how much I would like it. I need to work on that whole diplomacy thing, I guess.

For now, I'm focusing on my appellate brief. It's coming along, but I am getting pretty sick of the subject matter. If I never have to work on a religious discrimination case again I'll be glad. Once that gets turned in next week I'm off to Vegas for a fabulous vacation. I cannot wait. I may or may not spend some time working while we're gone, but I doubt it. My favorite professor told me not to do any homework over Spring Break. On Fall Break I worked 8 hour days outlining and still had to redo it all when I got done with regular classes. I'm going to learn from that and enjoy a nice vacation. 4 star hotels, room service, and time with my hubby. It just can't get any better than that. Exams should be a breeze after that.

Moot Court and Appellate Briefs

Yesterday I acted as a bailiff for the moot court competitions semi-final round. I had been curious about the program, as someone like me tends to enjoy public speaking (I know, right?) and finds it 1000x more appealing than being on a journal. Rumors say that you should do one or the other if you want a shiny resume, but I just think it would be kind of fun. I did theater in high school and missed out on debate, although I did enter some public speaking contests. The downside of all of this is our school has made moot court and journals only 1 credit, which for the amount of work you do is criticized to be overly low. I had heard some upperclassmen talk about moot court and their tone was pretty negative (although I have a sneaking suspicion that none of them actually did moot court). I asked a team yesterday if they wouldn't mind answering a few questions about the workload and it's basically what I suspected. You do as much (or as little) work as you WANT to do. And it's one less final to take that semester. Seems pretty awesome to me, and I enjoyed what I saw. Apart from the judges, anyway. They were super intense and scary. They ask you really tough questions just like the Supreme Court would and try to catch you off guard.

The writing doesn't seem to be more than the stupid brief I'm working on right now, so I'm thinking I may look into it.

As for the appellate brief, I am not a big fan. I should be working on it right now. I had convinced myself I was going to spend all weekend on it and then Abigail got sick. Sick kid does not equal productive weekend. We have had so little sleep and frankly my mood totally sucks.

However, I am going to put some good effort into it right now and I have an appointment with my professor on Tuesday. After that I will have another meeting with him the following Tuesday and then it's due that Friday. Why should I stress? After that is done it will be Spring Break, and we are going to Vegas! (I will be outlining while we are there, but I figure that's a good thing. There is only so much gambling/eating/doing stuff money to go around.)

After that, only a month or so before exams! It's happening so fast, much faster than I thought it would. I'm sure with the weather warming up it's going to be tough to get work done, but hopefully I can stay on task and get this year done.

Oh, and by the way, here is the insanity I am dealing with. Co-hosting a friend's baby shower at the end of this month. Appellate brief. Volunteer clinics. CLASSES. Finals. Throwing a bachelorette party for a friend. Bridesmaid in the wedding for the same friend. Sometimes I think that actual classes are just incidental. It'd be so much nicer if I could just stay home and outline!

1L Spring

I cannot imagine how law students with year-long, comprehensive finals in the spring survive. Sorry for the lack of posts, everyone. My 1L brain is fried from my measly half-year courses and their preparation. I got my rough draft for my appellate brief back. I have a meeting with my professor tomorrow and then I will spend the next three weeks being a ghost while I work on that.

It was Abigail's 2nd birthday party. I had a couple misunderstandings with classmates which left me feeling frustrated. I FINALLY started to get it in Property. Things are up and they're down and that is the world of law school.

A week ago I was complaining about being stuck in the doldrums of law school. This week I have had way more excitement than I ever wanted.

I cannot wait until it's summer and I just have to work a 9-5 job. Sounds like heaven.