Friday, August 21, 2009

Orientation, day 3. Or: Welcome to law school!

[Please see my original post here.]

The final day of orientation was...

Oh my god; I'm a 1L!

...the most interesting of all three days. The first panel included the dean of students, Laura Ferrari; Art Klossner, director of health services; and Wilma J. Busse, psychologist from the school's counseling center. From the presentation I learned that 40% of lawyers have some form of OCD. I learned that substance abuse is rampant among lawyers and law students. And Dean Ferrari assured us that our professional life starts NOW. Message: don't embarrass yourself. Don't alienate faculty or other students. Be aware that lawyers and judges walk through the law building all the time and understand that your networking opportunities began on Tuesday.

Holy cow...I'm supposed to be a lawyer...

Then some upperclassmen gave us a building tour and we broke off into small groups to talk about what law school's really like with a 2L. The meat and bones session included mostly information I'd read in law school prep books. BUT my group went through a round of introductions and it became clear that in law school I am nearly completely surrounded by history and political science majors. Did I mention that I studied art as an undergraduate? I haven't even read the U.S. Constitution.

Holy crap. I'm not ready for this.

Anyway, my professors have posted assignments for the first classes and I have lots of reading and briefing to do. The reading, the briefing, the class prep; those parts are all very exciting. I'm officially a 1L. I've entered a brave new world, and, for now, I think I like it.

(How long do you think it'll be before I want to eat those words?)

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