Introduction. And Musings upon Completion of My First Year of Law School

I guess introductions aren't really necessary, since I doubt I will have any readers that don't already know me, but I figured I would give an explanation as to why I am starting a blog at all, since I don't have kids or anything, and that's what most people seem to blog about (which I love, for all of my readers who blog about their kids - I love your updates). I just completed my first year of law school, and I am off to St. Petersburg for the summer to work at a Russian NGO called the Institute for Information Freedom Development. I figure it may end up being a blog-worthy experience, and writing a blog seemed like the most practical way to share my adventures and photos with family and friends who might be interested.

For all you people who aren't interested, you don't have to tell me, but you don't have to read this blog either.

However, I'm not in Russia yet (which means the title for the blog seems a little bit inappropriate), but I thought I should get this started and write my first post before I go. And I do have something to share. As of 6:00 pm yesterday, I completed my first year of law school, and I though I would share some of the things I'm thinking about, as well as some of the feelings, good and bad, that I've had during this year.

First, law school has not lived up to the horror stories I heard about it. Most of the time. And then sometimes it does. My experience so far is that all of the other students are friendly and happy to help each other out (no sabotaging anyone else to get the benefit of the curve), professors are generally eager to be helpful and make sure you understand, and the workload is not so bad. Except for maybe one professor and the last six weeks of the semester.

Second, every once in a while I find myself in a setting where I suddenly am overcome with panic because I seem to have become part of a sub-culture that I was not expecting and am not fully prepared for. Meetings with the Career Services Office seem to do this to me - everyone is throwing around the names of big law firms (that I've never heard of and everyone else seems to know all about) and talking about working 100 hours a week; I'm left feeling like I'm on some crazy track that I'm not sure I want to be on, but that seems required.

Third, it turns out I don't think I'm at all interested in doing the work that I thought I was coming to law school to do (public international work). Granted, this is based on my experiences in a single class, but I feel pretty confident about this feeling. It was a disheartening and somewhat jarring realization.

I sound like a downer. So let me share with you:

Fourth, I LOVE law school. This has been the most unexpected thing that has happened to me this year. I don't know that I have ever been so intellectually stimulated or challenged. The things that I'm learning are helping me to look at the world in a different way, and I have noticed that I think about things differently, which I'm coming to realize is the purpose of a legal education. Besides being exposed to the law, law school, at least this first year, seems to be about learning how to think in the way that a lawyer has to think. I don't know that any of my education up to this point has had this kind of impact on me, or that I have ever enjoyed it so much. I have consistently felt during this year that coming to law school was the right decision for me to make, even though sometimes I'm not sure why I'm getting a law degree.

So there you go. I may have more musings about law school to share with you later, but that's all for now. Also, I'm posting a few pictures from the year, mainly so I can figure out how to use this thing.