Rant, Rant and Errant
It's 6:39am and I had a strong urge to start this blog with "Captain's Log, October 28, 2009. 6:39am. Somewhere--somewhere lost in the galaxy."
Odd as I've never been much more than a passing Star Trek fan.
As I may have stated in previous blogs, this quarter of my third year feels a lot like being a 1L all over again. That, in turn, feels a lot like constantly trying to keep yourself from drowning under the weight of it all. Early on in this quarter, I became all too tempted to assume being this busy and feeling this oppressed by time and agenda was an Ira-centric issue. However, as weeks pass and we draw near to the close of the term, I'm starting to hear from classmate after classmate that they too have been staggering under the weight of it all.
There are a few lessons to be had here, I'm convinced:
(1) Don't bite off more than you can chew. Being involved in student activities and extracurriculars is great, and IMPORTANT, but don't let your eyes get bigger than your stomach. It seems it's a pretty common mistake to assume you can do it all. That's when classes start to feel the pinch. There is a balance to be had, and it's different for everyone. So, find yours but don't forget about classes. They are primarily why you're here at law school, and why you're future self is paying them ungodly amounts of money.
(2) No person is an island. Realize that a lot of the time, when you feel alone in your burdens, you have good company. Many of your classmates are also feeling a little taken down by the wolves that hell week during 1L when you question why you even came to law school, or when you're having nagging, persistent 3L/senioritis musings about why are you still in law school.
You might respond..."but Ira, those are all pretty cliche and common-sense lessons." And you'd be correct and get the gold star. However, as you'll learn, much of law school is an unwitting war to disturb common sense out of your day to day thinking for a while. Not all of school has it out for your practical side, of course, and you'll probably be far better off at experiential-focused NUSL. Just know, for a while, when you're trying to delve deep into the conceptual thought pattern of whether a fictitious, objective, and quite unrealistic "reasonable person would feel harmed by such behavior," common sense may take a vacation and not tell you it's leaving.
You may also be quite calculating and notice that I said there were a few lessons to be learned. I guess that lesson is to stop reading so much into things. Some things--sometimes--need to just be taken at face value.
In less ranting news, I have two interviews this week for post-grad opportunities. Wish me luck! And good luck to all my fellow interviewers. At this point, I'm rooting for any and all of us to get a job lined up before we take the bar. I also attended an MPRE review session this past weekend, which is helping prepare me for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam. Nearly every state (except California, I think) requires that you have a certain high score on the MPRE before you can even sit to take the bar and become a licensed attorney. After all, they want to make sure that you're ethical. Or...at the least, that you can answer sixty multiple choice questions as if you are.
More on that later. Good luck to all of you out there as you start finalizing early admission applications.