One Down...Two to Go

I am happy to announce...I am officially a 2L. I realize that I finished exams over a month ago, so technically you could say that I finished my first year of law school then; but I have been hesitant to really consider myself a 2L until I got all of my grades back, lest I failed something. That is just be being paranoid, I realize, but so be it. So today, I am a 2L! YAY!! (How lovely of the profs to have finally gotten around to grading those exams...I'm so glad they didn't take their time or anything like that.)

I keep thinking back to this time last year - Hubby and I were trying to find a house closer to where I would be going to school. We were incredibly stressed out. I was completely slacking off in Cubicle Hell because I knew I was quitting in a month and I loved it. I was terrified of starting school. I was convinced that I would be an utter and complete failure and let everyone in my life down over this endeavor, including and especially myself. A year later I find that I have a little more confidence, I know a little more about the law, and although things are still stressful, there is a light at the end of the tunnel in that hopefully I can get through this and become an attorney.

I guess, one year out, this is the only wisdom I can offer anyone who is about to embark on the law school journey. Is it terrifying? Yes, especially before you start. Then you start and it is the hardest and most academically challenging thing situation you've ever found yourself in; but somehow, you're doing it. Then finals roll around and you literally want to set your hair on fire rather than sit for these exams, but again, somehow you do it; and then you turn around and a year is in the can, and you don't know how you did it, you don't know how you'll do it again, but it's happening. So for anyone starting, go to class, do the reading, study your butt off, but remember to have fun, make friends, and don't take yourself too seriously - because in the end, people won't remember that you ranked first in your class as much as they will remember that you were a jerk or a really cool person; and sometimes, who you know and what opinion they have of you might pull you through more than a transcript ever will. Good luck 1Ls to be!