Socratic Method-Legally Blonde is fairly accurate

Let me first begin by apologizing for my several-month-long hiatus. Between my internship this past summer and preparing for law school blogging just didn't make the top priorities list although it probably should have.

All of this is behind us now, I have survived my first month of law school and can now get back to my pre law school rituals such as sharing my life with all of you. Law school is both exactly how I pictured it and not at all how I imagined it to be. The first couple of weeks were a breeze, all my professors seemed incredibly nice and understanding and we moved at a glacial pace through the material. Sadly, this trend ended after the third week. Suddenly I was assigned five or six cases a night per a class and had at least two writing assignments per week. I, who had been thinking I could handle law school no problem, had one of those "oh sh!t" moments where it suddenly hit me: Law school is hard. I took several law classes in undergrad and got through them with relative ease. Sure they had been more work than my other classes but nothing I couldn't manage while still finishing my work in time to watch Gossip Girl at 8. I imagined I was well prepared for law school and would get through my classes just fine.

While I still believe I will make it through, I now realize it will require a whole lot more effort. It is not enough to have simply read the cases for class. I must know the cases, know the facts, the reasoning behind the court's decisions, and how a court would apply that law to subsequent cases. Not only must all this info somehow make it to my brain but I need to be able to apply it and analyze it quickly when called upon in class. This is where the real accuracy of Legally Blonde comes into play. I first learned of the Socratic Method when Elle was called on at random during her first class at Harvard Law School. Just as in the movie my professor's all have seating charts and since my school is nifty those seating charts are equipped with each student's picture. Professors take a look at the seating chart and call out a name. This poor student is then asked a series of questions which can take as little as five minutes or the entire hour class period. Unfortunately, I have a simple name "Jill" so my contracts professor has learned it by heart. I am often the student called on to give a brief of at least one of the cases we had to prepare for that class. While it is terrifying to be called on it has really made me be prepared for class. I now know what my professors are looking for and what they expect me to get from each of the cases we have read. So I might be crazy but I kinda like the socratic method.

So while I spend most of my hours reading away in the library, I have managed to maintain a mildly active social life. Weekends take on a whole new meaning and importance when you really are busting your butt five days a week. Luckily, Vermont is gorgeous and offers a plethora of distractions if you choose to accept them. From farmer's markets, to wine tastings, to hiking trails, and rugby games I never have trouble finding something to take my mind off my studies. Now that the leaves are changing it is absolutely breathtaking here and so I take every opportunity I get to go outside. Sadly the leaves changing coincides with the temperature dropping so I need to always be sporting a hoodie. I suppose that is the price I pay for choosing a school in New England.

Alas, I must be going. It is 1:20 and I still have two more classes, a meeting, a study group, and about a bajillion pages to read for tomorrow. Until next week, stay lazy friends, I wish I could.

Apartment Advice Needed!

As I prepare myself to move out of my house in Binghamton, I have no choice but to start to look for housing for the next phase of myself. As fun as this may sound to some I am completely dreading it. Unlike college, I do not have the option of living on campus for a year or two until I make friends to move off with. I have only visited the school once am more than a bit nervous about finding the right place for me to live for the next year or possibly all three years.

Thankfully the school's website has several listings of apartments based on the criteria that I want. If only I knew what that was. I love living with other people but at the same time I really enjoy having my won space. Taking into consideration the pressures of law school I have decided that I want my own apartment but in a building that houses other law students. That is about all the criteria I have besides wireless internet. Oh and a washer and dryer would be nice as well.

Looking at the listings there are several in the same buildings all under different realtors. I have no idea where to begin or what differentiates the apartments and the prices. If they are all in the same building I doubt they vary greatly in size but who knows. I think I want something a bit bigger than a studio so I can have a separate living and sleeping as well as studying space.

Anyone have any suggestions of what I should be looking for in an apartment? or any advice for surviving law school?

either one would be greatly appreciated!

stay lazy y'all especially to all of you students out there who are ending the semester!

Four Weeks...

I graduate from college in four weeks. Four weeks! It is incredible to think how quickly four years have flown by. I am personally not ready to graduate and I am one of the lucky ones; I have a job for the summer at an Environmental Consulting company and know what I'm doing next year, attending Vermont Law School. I feel old and at the same time incredibly young. I'm not sure I'm ready to go out into the real world.

Surprisingly with graduation comes a great deal of planning. I had to select which ceremonies I wanted to attend, order a cap and gown, make restaurant reservations (Wegmans anyone?), and make sure my house is in order for when all of our parents come up. Unfortunately, when I should be having the most fun with it being my last month I have the most work to do, suddenly all of my classes have final papers and projects that my professors neglected to mention until last week. So what if it is on the syllabus? everyone knows no one reads the syllabus! I also seem to be swarmed with meetings. Even though my senior show was last weekend as I mentioned last week, I still have Pegs responsibilities and work to go to, I work at a library on campus.

Though some might argue that my future is certain, I will go to VLS for three years then get a lawyering job, when I am done with that I will become an Environmental Consultant and from there become an adjunct college professor in environmental law and policy. But while I have my life planned until the age of about 65 there is still so much uncertainty. I hate to admit it but I am terrified to leave my bubble of Binghamton, a place that has helped me grow into the person that I have become. It doesn't help that I will be living in the boonies for the next three years straight since I will be staying in Vermont for summers so that I can get my masters as well as my JD.

To say the least I am a bit stressed out as I come into these last few weeks. Luckily my senioritis has kicked in hardcore so I won't feel the brunt of the stress until the night before each project is due.

As always stay your lazy procrastinating self.

The Beginning of the End.

As the final semester of my undergrad career begins I can't help but feel the bittersweet feeling of a chapter of my life coming to an end. When I began freshman year I didn't think I would ever be ready to leave this college behind, but the closer I get the more excited I become to get out in the real world. I imagine this anxious feeling is because I, unlike so many of my friends know exactly what I am doing after graduation. I will be attending law school for the next three years. While it is not exactly the end of my education and the beginning of a career, it will mark a new experience and a change from my current lifestyle.

As excited as I am to move on with my life, I will be sad to leave this place behind. I live with five of my closest friends and it will be a hard adjustment to not come home to them after a hard day of classes next year. I am used to Binghamton and all it has to offer. Throughout my years here I have been able to take part in tons of activities and events that I'm not sure will be available to me in law school. I often wonder if I will be able to handle the work load of graduate school as my senioritis sets in and I have more motivation to lay in my bed all day than to do any sort of school work.

Alas, I must start some of that homework now if I have any chance of making the midnight deadline.

To all you readers out there, stay lazy.