October 28, 2016

Should You Go to Law School?

Should you go to law school? What to consider before applying to law school. | brazenandbrunette.com

Law school application season is upon us, so I wanted to take the time to give some perspective to anyone out there who is on the fence about law school. Law school is the hardest thing I've ever done, but that doesn't mean that I regret my decision one bit.


It's nothing like the LSAT

Or anything you've ever done before. So just because you got great grades your whole life doesn't mean it'll be easy. On the flip side, if you struggled with the LSAT or thought it wasn't real-world realistic, that's okay because law school is literally nothing like that at all. In one of my classes we're already doing practice Bar questions and thankfully there are no logic games involved. 

It is time consuming

Ok let me do a quick breakdown for you.
  24 hours in a day
- 8 hours sleeping
- 1.5 hours getting ready/getting to class
- 2 hours cooking/eating (breakfast, lunch, dinner)
- 4 hours of class
- 5 hours of studying
-1 hour working out
-1/2 hour doing chores around the house
2 hours of free time

Now I'm not saying that's how little free time you have every day, but it isn't uncommon for you to spend 5 hours reading or writing for a class. The one down side to law school is that during the busy parts you're really busy.

It isn't crazy competitive

And people aren't rude savages trying to get ahead of the curve. Everyone's suffering through this together so you kind of bond with your classmates because of this. That's why people study in groups because at least it's y'all together against everyone else. But after two schools, I've found that people are always friendly enough to offer old outlines or whatever to help you along. 


It's not like debate team or mock trial

Two things about this. 1. If debate or mock trial weren't your thing, or you didn't even like it, then you can still go to law school. Not every lawyer spends all day arguing in front of a jury. That's a litigation lawyer. There's also transactional lawyers who write wills or file companies for bankruptcy. 2. If you were super into debate or mock trial, that doesn't necessarily mean that you're ahead of the game.


Sure you have the opportunity to join a mock trial (or moot court) team and occasionally a professor will have you debate a side in class, but that's not what this is about. Mostly all you'll be doing that first year is sitting in class learning about how a contract is formed or what the term "delivery" means for property. Remember, it is law school.

It is expensive

Another breakdown, this time of my costs through my first semester as a 2L.

0L
1,200 Kaplan LSAT prep
180 1st LSAT attempt registration
180 2nd LSAT attempt registration
50 1st school application fee
45 2nd school application fee
45 3rd school application fee (I got waivers for the 2 other schools)
$1,875

1L
20,500 government loan (FASFA)
900 interest on government loan from Aug. 2015 - Aug. 2016
1,300 interest on private loan from Aug. 2015 - Aug. 2016
200 Declaration of Intent fee
$50,500
(these two loans covered my tuition, housing, books, and living expenses)

2L
20,500 government loan
13,000 private student loan (because I transferred to a cheaper school)
$33,500 (so far without interest)

Total
$85,875 approximately because I've been rounding


should you go to law school? | brazenandbrunette.com

The Law School Bubble has popped

You might hear stories from people about how law school isn't worth it. This is because from like 2005 - 2013, the law school market was flooded and the economy was bad. This means that a lot of lawyers were super in debt and were having a hard time finding jobs. Some people even argued it wasn't worth it unless you received a great scholarship to a Tier 1 school and graduated in the Top 10% (although I think this is a little extreme). 

But thanks to this bubble, right now there are not as many law graduates as there used to be and the economy is slowly getting better so our job prospects are more optimistic and it isn't as big of a financial risk to go into debt getting a law degree.


It isn't like what you see

As much as I love Legally Blonde and HTGAWM, those don't accurately portray what you'll be doing as a 1L. There are professors who still have a practice (called adjuncts) but I almost guarantee they're not going to pull people out of your class to help them with a case. Criminal Procedure and Evidence are 2L classes so you wouldn't even know how to help a professor. 

That's like teaching a 5th grader how to make a volcano out of baking soda and vinegar and then a scientist taking that kid along with him to Hawaii to collect lava samples from a volcano. If anyone is going to work with a professor it's going to be a 2L or a 3L and they'll probably be helping them research and publish a book.


You don't have to know what kind of law you want to practice

It's always weird to me when people ask me what kind of law I'm studying because truthfully, I'm studying all the types of law. What's weird about the bar exam is that it's not like a normal comprehensive test because you end up being tested over subjects that you haven't even taken classes for. So you have to take as many different subjects as possible to learn a little about a lot in only 3 years.

Because of this, you can end up figuring out what kind of law to practice. You might take a class and realize that you love it and want to do that for your career. Or by process of elimination you can find what you absolutely don't want to do. I'm a 2L and still don't know what kind of law I want to practice, so don't think you have to know either.

It is a challenge


That's about how your 1L year feels, especially during that first semester. There's really not much you can do to prepare for law school before you experience first hand. I mean, no book you read or class you take can prepare you for how helpless you feel when you aren't understanding a topic a few weeks before the final or stressed you feel reading for 4 classes every night. Eventually you learn to swim and then it starts to be more manageable. And after dedicating so much time and effort into law school, you have immense pride in yourself each time you pass a class.


There is a "law school game"

When you get here, you'll hear people refer to law school as a game. Think of this game as like Monopoly. As long as you don't break any rules, you can do whatever it takes to win. Just like Monopoly, a few people interpret this as sabotaging others to make so they can finish higher. But other people just are smart about it. You have to learn how to prioritize what's important, how to find and take advantage of help that's offered, how to strategize and plan to be successful.

Just one example is learning how to multitask really well. Sometimes the professors slide says one thing and he's talking about something else, but because I can multitask I can mindlessly copy what's on the slide into my notes while still listening to what the professor is going over and write down a summary of what he said when he pauses. Because I can do this, I don't miss out on as much information as someone else who either focuses purely on the slides or purely on the professor. 

Other ways to work the system is to visit office hours and get a sense of what the test is like, or to take advantage of a program that your school offers to help make you a more competitive applicant once it's time to fight for a job. The law school game is all about taking advantage of your strengths while either strengthening your weaknesses or at least not letting them slow you down. 

It is fun

Despite all of the "law school sucks" tweets and texts law students send to our friends, we actually love it here. To me, college was mostly just blow off classes or classes that I didn't really care about. Even the ones I liked, I still wasn't passionate about. But I am passionate about all of my law classes. Sure, I might've fought to stay awake through the Dormant Commerce Clause during Constitutional Law, but then I was wide awake when we began to talk about First Amendment rights. 

And even though you read a lot of cases, they're interesting! Torts is full of examples of people just being complete idiots and Criminal Law is like reading a real CSI case. Literally my favorite part about my Wills class is reading about people's dirty laundry, like the wife finding out her husband had a mistress when he left her half of his money. So, at least it's not completely terrible.

should you go to law school? | brazenandbrunette.com
Stole this from my friend Jordan

October 21, 2016

6 Tips for When You Feel the Mid-Semester Burnout

6 Tips for When You Feel the Mid-Semester Burnout. How to be productive even when you don't feel like it. How to beat the mid-semester burnout. What to do when you feel overwhelmed in law school. How to get back on track mid semester. How to study when you have no motivation. How to study when you don't feel like it. Ways to keep studying when you want to stop | brazenandbrunette.com

October is the worst month of the semester. September is full of new year, new me! attitude. November is full of shit shit shit finals are coming! attitude. October is full of meh attitude. It's the middle of the semester and your motivation is gone. I'm talking about me too because this is why although I have lots of blog post ideas, the effort of writing them out just seems too much. This is the month when you start skimming or completely skipping the notes after a case. Where you go to class unprepared. Where you spend all day in bed watching YouTube videos of auditions for The Voice instead of studying. You just are over law school. 

Unfortunately, this lack of motivation is obviously detrimental for your law school success. It becomes easier and easier to fall behind in your readings or procrastinate studying your outlines. You can only put your responsibilities off for so long before they start to stress you out because all of a sudden now you have this massive to-do list just to catch up on top of what you already need to be doing. So here's some things to rekindle that motivational fire of yours so you don't keep slipping behind.


Take a day to get your life together

Do all of the chores that have been piling up. Do that workout hat you told yourself you'd do weeks ago. Change the oil in your car, hang those pictures, or do whatever else you've been putting off. Just make a to do list and get it done. 

Related: How working out helped my law school anxiety and depression and 6 ways to de-stress in law school

There's just something about having a clean house and your personal life put back together that helps you feel like you can take on the world. It's kind of a way to jump start your motivation because once you start getting tasks done, it'll make you want to keep going and tackle studying.

Related: Law school apartment cleaning schedule

Get in a routine

It's easy to start off the year saying I'll go to class from 10-3; I'll read from 3-7; I'll study from 7-9. But probably now your schedule is more like class for sure because it's mandatory, read whenever I get around to it, and study sometime eventually. But that routine is what helps keep you organized and make sure you get everything done that you're supposed to. 

Related: 5 lists for an organized semester

After you've run all the errands that I was just talking about, sit down and think of what you have to get done. Make two lists— one for things you need to do weekly (chores, reviewing) and one for things you need to do daily (read). Now designate a study time every day, a review time every week, and a chores time every week and get used to getting your shit done during those times. Eventually you'll get used to studying at 7 o'clock every night again and then you'll just go on autopilot and start studying when you're supposed to.

Related: How to study from 9-5 in law school

Get back to planning

Again, putting everything down in your planner is really easy at the beginning of the semester, but by now you might even forget to be using your planner. This goes along with the routine in that organization will help you get back on track. You have 24 hours in a day, so excluding sleeping and class think about how you're spending each hour. Once you become self-aware of those productivity black holes during the day, you can focus on not letting those hours waste by.

Related: The best law school planners

If you're struggling with this, you might start out with baby steps and plan out your day hour by hour. I'm talking write out the time you're asleep, the time you spend getting ready/going to class, and especially the time you know you need to be studying. Another thing you might try doing is making a to-do list of everything that you need to get done that day. This might feel overwhelming, but it keeps you on track and makes sure there's nothing you forget.

Get real about your studying

First of all, when it comes to studying if you wait until you're motivated to start studying then you'll be waiting for a very long time. The best way to start is to kinda just force yourself to do it. Also be realistic with yourself about what distracts you the most. For me, sometimes it'll be getting on Pinterest during a study break and then staying there longer than I need to. Two solutions I've found to this is to use the Podomoro app (more about that here) or to study somewhere where I don't have WiFi, like a park.

Related: 5 new locations to study

This brings me to my next suggestion of try something new to shake up your mundane studying. I love studying at the park because I get to enjoy a beautiful day but still study somewhere less depressing than the library. Another way to shake things up is to listen to something different. Obviously music with lyrics can be distracting, but sometimes even classical music can be distracting when you start paying attention to the rhythm. On the flip side, not listening to anything won't drown out the background noise of your neighbors and can be pretty boring. So I recently started listening to white noise while I study and it solves all of these problems.

One last thing. Remember to study and then relax. If you start off relaxing then it'll be really hard to convince yourself to get up and get studying. So save the Netflix for a reward.

Go to bed one hour earlier

This may not seem relevant, but hear me out. Because you're not super organized in your life right now, you're probably staying up later than you did at the beginning of the year. Which means that now you're waking up more tired and hitting snooze until you have to rush to get ready. So now your day has started off in a rushed yet sleepy haze. And that's how the rest of your day will probably be.

Making yourself get an extra hour of sleep is going to do wonders for your sanity! You'll be more energized to pay attention during class or tutor sessions. And when you feel well rested, it's a lot easier to sit down and read for hours instead of fighting off a nap. 

Related: 9 Steps to Sleeping Better

Give yourself a kick

I understand that right now you're feeling more stressed out than you ever thought was possible. I mean, your friends still in college whining about their little midterms? They don't even understand stress! So without adding more stress to yourself and pushing you closer to a mental breakdown, you do need to have a reality check with yourself. 

Yes you made it to law school, but you haven't reached your dreams of being a lawyer yet. Now is not the time to get lazy and sloppy just because you no longer have to worry about being good enough to get into law school. I know it sucks, but you need to sit down and think about what baby steps you can take to make sure that you're accomplishing your goals.

Related: My law school semester goals


let's be friends!
   

October 14, 2016

How to Highlight a Law School Casebook Efficiently

how minimalist highlighting can be more efficient and help you learn to read cases or fact patterns faster | brazenandbrunette.com

Once upon a few months ago, I made a post about the best highlighters for law school and showed y'all how I color coordinated my colors to the parts of the case. And then later in my post about how to make an outline, I showed y'all a picture of my highlighted book and was like only highlight what's crucial. But yesterday my professor handed out a case for us to read that she printed off from Lexis and last night after I had read and highlighted through the case I thought to myself, damn I'm pretty good at this. So I decided to maybe share my wisdom.  

It sounds very trivial, but effective highlighting is teaching your brain how to quickly read and analyze information to find out what's important and what's not. If you've taken a timed issue spotter question already, then you know exactly what I mean (and if you haven't then just trust me on this one). When you get out in the law world, you're not going to have condensed cases. Instead it will be your job to read a lot of information in a short amount of time and pick out what's relevant and now's the time to get good at that. 

how to highlight efficiently | brazenandbrunette.com

I recently saw this on Pinterest and honestly it annoyed me because you can highlight and still actively read, just if you do it right. And if you have 100 pages to read a night, jotting down notes and summaries in the margins will take literal hours. So here's how. 

Test it out. Read only the what's highlighted in blue in the case below (it's super short, I promise!). Read it and try to avoid all of the other unhighlighted words. It might not make perfect sense because I don't highlight every word, but I promise you'll figure out what it's saying. Read only the blue and ask yourself if you feel like you understand what is happening in the case and if you could easily retell it to a classmate or professor. 

PS it's all in one color because I read this case rushed and didn't have time to find all of my highlighters to color code it like I normally do to make it even easier 

how to highlight efficiently | brazenandbrunette.com

how to highlight efficiently | brazenandbrunette.com

how to highlight efficiently | brazenandbrunette.com


How'd I do for condensing 3 pages down to less than 300 words? By the end could you pick out the plaintiff problem, defendant's argument, issue, and holding? Just imagine if I'd only highlighted about the plaintiff in pink, and only highlighted about the defendant in blue, and only the holding in orange or only the rule in red. It would be even easier to pick each of these parts out! 

how minimalist highlighting can be more efficient and help you learn to read cases or fact patterns faster | brazenandbrunette.com

What makes it effective highlighting is when you cut out details, irrelevant information, and even connector words. Yeah it might not seem like it makes sense, but JSUT 4S YU0R BR41N C4N R34D 7HI5, it can figure out the meaning of a sentence if you only highlight a few words. Another tip is to not highlight punctuation. When you go back through and reread it, these gaps in highlight help break up what's needing to be said so then the periods become redundant.  

One super helpful benefit to this is if you read a case and then your professor gets behind and doesn't talk about it until days later, a quick scan over it will remind you of all you need to know. That's actually a really good way to make yourself start being a minimalist highlighter is to highlight it thinking that you'll only have a minute to read everything that you've highlighted. When you're in a time crunch to quickly read something, you'll only read what's vital- so highlight like this! 

I hope this helps some of you over-highlighters streamline your process and get through your readings faster! I really think it helps :) 

October 7, 2016

How to Stay Fit in Law School

tips on how to stay fit in law school plus 3 things to help improve your run and how losing 10 pounds in a semester saved me money. working out in law school. how to be healthy in law school. why you should work out in law school. how to eat healthy on a budget. | brazenandbrunette.com

Confession time: I gained the freshman fifteen in college (ok, a teensy bit more than that). And then at the end of my first semester my 1L year, I noticed that my oversized sorority shirts weren't quite so baggy anymore and realized that I had gained over 5 pounds just that semester. I wasn't completely surprised, I was stress eating and had been stressed a lot. Not only that, but I was spending a ton of time at home reading, and usually snacking around as I read. 

I knew that if I didn't change something, pretty soon I'd have the 3L 30 (just made that up haha). So I started eating healthier and working out more my 2nd semester. Working out when stressed instead of stress eating turned out to help so much. Instead of feeling guilty on top of being stressed, I felt like I was combating my stress and my weight insecurities all in one. Plus, exercise gives you endorphins ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Related: How working out helped my law school depression

 The easiest way to get into a habit of working out every day is to fit it into your routine. My 1L year I would come home from my last class, change, then go work out. My 2L year I started setting my alarm for an hour earlier and would wake up, workout, then go to class. When I work out, I typically go through 3 phases: 1) wanting to be healthy so I do a lot of cardio, 2) wanting to tone up so I do a lot of weights, and 3) being tight from weights so I do a lot of yoga
Running is my personal favorite way to exercise because you don't have to think of your next move like in yoga or count reps like with weightlifting. You just can get lost in the music and let your brain take a break. If you hate running, my first suggestion to you is to go outside because running around a park is a lot less depressing than running in one place for 30 minutes.

3 products to improve your run. running tips. running for beginners tips. how to stay healthy in law school | brazenandbrunette.com



One of the best things I got when I started running again were these wireless headphonesbecause it is seriously the worst when the movement of your arms catches a wire and rips an earbud from your ear and it feels like it took your whole ear off with it. I also used to hate how the wires would bounce around while I ran, so much that I would run my headphones under my shirt to keep them tucked in. These headphones in particular have one short wire that connect the earbuds that runs behind your head, so it stays out of your way. 

Update: I just got a pair of Apple AirPods and they are definitely worth the investment!!



And because the headphones connect wirelessly to your phone, you can put that away when you run too. I loathe those stupid armband phone holders because they trap all of your sweat and begin to slide down your arm and are too big of a pain to get your phone out to use your phone. I recently started running with this running belt instead and it is so so so much better. The band goes under your shirt so no one even knows you have anything on you. It doesn't slide around and thankfully doesn't trap sweat either. And because it's so big, I can keep the clicker to my car in there instead of having it rattle around in my bra.



Another thing that I now can't run (or live) without is my Apple watchIt tells me my pace, heart rate, and how long I've been running. I can set a countdown for a certain distance, and it'll even pause the run when I stop to tie my shoe. And it also can connect to my headphones and play music so I could run without my phone, if I wanted to. And since I decided I want to be healthier, I use it daily to try to reach my steps goals.

If you feel like you run and run but never lose weight, you might consider drinking a protein shake after you run. Just add a scoop of protein powder (this is what I love) into a blender bottle and add water. It helps your body turn fat into muscle and helps you get lean muscle. I also sometimes will drink a half shake about 45-30 minutes before I run and I've found that helps me not get so tired as I run.

tips on how to stay fit in law school plus 3 things to help improve your run and how losing 10 pounds in a semester saved me money | brazenandbrunette.com

1. Stop eating out. Like as much as possible. None, if you can. Eating out may seem cheaper, but for me, eating at home is cheaper. For example, all of the ingredients for a PB&J costs about $10 total but makes you 10 meals, so that's $1/400 calories for a meal. But at McDonald's, a meal of a burger, fries, and a drink for only $6 may seem cheap, but that's $6/800 calories for a meal.

And think about it-- if you really want a burger, then going to the store and buying patties and buns with be better than getting something that has lots of preservatives so you don't notice it's been under a heating lamp. 

Related: Why I meal plan in law school

2. Pay attention to portions. Obviously this is always mentioned when you want to lose weight, but here's how it saves you money. Say you buy a package of chips. A bag of chips has about 16 servings in it, which theoretically should last you at least 16 days even if you eat them every day. But if you're not measuring out these portions, this bag will only last you a couple of days and then you'd have to pay to buy more again. See?? 

How I portion things out is I'll go ahead and measure out each serving of the entire bag and put it in a little snack bag. Then I can visually see how many portions I'm having, or if I'm in a rush I'll already have a little snack poured out and ready to go!

3. Drink only water. Being from Texas, I have a slight Dr. Pepper addiction. That first semester, I would drink one at lunch and then have another one after school as I was reading. I finally decided to cut that habit and it saved me more money than I realized. Every day I was spending $4 and 400 calories on those drinks. This added up to $20 a week in savings!!

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October 5, 2016

Law School as Told by [1]Elle Woods

law school as told by Elle Woods | brazenandbrunette.com


When you get your first acceptance letter and get to brag that you're going to law school
When you get your first acceptance letter and get to brag that you're going to law school | brazenandbrunette.com


When family members ask what you plan to do after graduation
When family members ask what you plan to do after graduation | brazenandbrunette.com


When you decide to buy used books, even if they already have writing in them
When you decide to buy used books, even if they already have writing in them | brazenandbrunette.com

When you get your first reading assignments
When you get your first reading assignments | brazenandbrunette.com


When you remember that strippers don't have to make case briefs
When you remember that strippers don't have to make case briefs | brazenandbrunette.com


When you decide to stop studying and just sleep
When you decide to stop studying and just sleep | brazenandbrunette.com


When you've mastered the Socratic Method
When you've mastered the Socratic Method | brazenandbrunette.com


When you finally finish reading for the day
When you finally finish reading for the day | brazenandbrunette.com


When your professor asks you a question and you get it right
When your professor asks you a question and you get it right | brazenandbrunette.com


When your legal writing professor hands a paper back 3 times because you can't get the citations right
When your legal writing professor hands a paper back 3 times because you can't get the citations right | brazenandbrunette.com


When your professor assigns more readings than was on the syllabus
When your professor assigns more readings than was on the syllabus | brazenandbrunette.com


When you realize that this is now the extent of your social life
When you realize that this is now the extent of your social life | brazenandbrunette.com


And pretend that you're fine staying home to study while your non-law friends go out
And pretend that you're fine staying home to study while your non-law friends go out | brazenandbrunette.com


When you use legal terms around non-law people to sound smart
When you use legal terms around non-law people to sound smart | brazenandbrunette.com


When you have to write your first legal memo and have no clue what you're doing
When you have to write your first legal memo and have no clue what you're doing | brazenandbrunette.com


When you get 9/10 right on a quiz but it turns into a B- thanks to the curve
When you get 9/10 right on a quiz but it turns into a B- thanks to the curve | brazenandbrunette.com


When you have to dress Business Professional and a girl comes teetering in on 6" heels
When you have to dress Business Professional and a girl comes teetering in on 6" heels | brazenandbrunette.com


When you realize that 4 hours isn't enough time for a final
When you realize that 4 hours is not enough time for a final | brazenandbrunette.com


When you find out that multiple choice finals aren't any easier than essay finals
When you find out that multiple choice finals aren't any easier than essay finals | brazenandbrunette.com


When you realize that you survived the semester
When you realize that you survived the semester | brazenandbrunette.com



October 2, 2016

How to Manage your Semester Goals for Law School


Happy October, everyone! Since it's not been a month since I made my fall semester goals, I wanted to take the time to hold myself accountable on how those are going. If you haven't made any goals for this semester, I suggest you still do it! If you're not sure where to start, here are some great basic goals to being with.


Read every case

I'm proud to say that this is one thing I haven't faltered on much so far this year. There's been a few times when I just had no motivation so I printed out a Quimbee brief and just highlighted what the professor went over in class, but even on those occasions I make sure to catch up on the weekends so I'm still reading the material between the cases.

I'll admit though, I only actually have any cases in 1 of my classes. That's because in my other classes—Legal Research and Writing (part 2), Negotiations, and Commercial Law—my book isn't a case book. Honestly I did get behind in reading my first Negotiations book, which bit me in the ass when my professor decided to give us a pop quiz. So now I'm trying to not let those readings slide by. My LRW book is essentially explaining exactly what I've already done as we get ready to write our first memos (been there, done that), so I feel pretty confident not staying up in those readings. As for Commercial Law, right now I'm so confused in there that sometimes I don't even know what chapters I should be reading in my explanations and examples book, especially because my professor never gave us a syllabus to structure myself around.

Next semester I'm taking 16 hours of nothing but traditional law school classes, so I know that I'll be drowning in reading. I'm sure this will be when I become a typical upperclassmen and start skimming hard on the assigned readings. That's because once you get out of your 1L year, you're expected to be building your résumé through campus involvement and legal practice and by then you already know what's vital from the readings so you can fudge it just a little. But we'll see!

Add highlights from the next to notes weekly

Again I'm sorta keeping up with this, but only because only 1 one my class has a book that I'm having to highlight in anyways. Because that class is Wills and Trusts, usually there's not a defendant so my OCD is starting to get bothered that I'm not using all of my highlighting colors equally. 

Summarize each chapter after reading it

This is something that I didn't do last year but am starting because it was suggested at the orientation that I went to. It's actually a great suggestion because it's a great review every week or so and I'm already creating study guides for finals. I wish I had pretty writing, but I don't :/ but if you'll bear with me, you can see how I'm doing these either on Twitter or on Tumblr (which btw has some really pretty study motivation!).

Outlining

Only two of my classes have finals, which is weird for me after last year. I've started on my Wills class because for the most part it has been my only "typical" law class. As for my Com law class, it still feels like we haven't gone over enough to make more than just a few subheadings, so I'm still waiting to really get it started because we are still only on the first chapter. But I'm still doing handwritten reviews over what we've gone over so I can easily use that to make my outline with.

(here's a post on how to get started on outlines)

Keep an updated case list

Obviously when I made these goals, I had no clue that only one of my classes would even have cases. I haven't started on this yet, but one day soon I'm planning an all-out catch up day where I get this done. Hopefully.

Speak up in class

Since my Negotiations and LRW classes require participation, I actually speak up a lot in these. But speaking up in class generally happens more when you're in a smaller class, and both of these have less than 25 students in them. In Wills class, my professor will go down the row and call on you, so I really haven't talked much except for the two times that I was called on. What's nice is that he goes through a lot of students in each class, so each time I was up, all I had to do was read part of a statute and that was it. 

As for my Com law class, I have no clue what's going on in there. Seriously it's one of those things where class kinda seems easy so I'm super suspicious. Because I have -25 confidence in that class, I have only talked the one time I was called on. Luckily I sit on her right, a little towards the back and she always calls on the middle or her left section so I can safely hide out for a while, at least until I feel like I have a good understanding on what's going on in there (if that ever happens).

Final Thoughts

If you read my blog last year, then you might remember that around this time last year was when I took a little break because I was too overwhelmed with law school to even think about blogging. That's why this post was so important to me to remind myself (and hopefully y'all) to take the time to organize myself and concentrate on what steps I need to be taking to make sure that I don't mess up anywhere. 

If you're starting to feel like you're drowning, it's cool because this is when I was too. There's nothing really I can suggest to beat that feeling, but just know that it's totally normal (almost expected), you can do this, you deserve to be here, don't give up on your dreams of becoming a lawyer, and stick with it!