Hello again, Jury of Peers! Spring is in full swing here at LLS and things are a little more hectic than in fall. As a 1L, choosing your elective is the only real taste of freedom you get in regards to your schedule. This year we had a choice of six different electives that we could request to be put into. There is also a seventh elective for students that the law school wants to help get better at exams: privacy torts. Most students wouldn’t declare they were in privacy torts because that would mean admitting to the world that they didn’t get A+’s their first semester at law school. But I think the best way to help others is to be brave myself.
Here is why privacy torts has been my favorite class so far. One, because I genuinely wanted to take privacy torts and think the subject is interesting. I’m interested in entertainment law and privacy torts look at a lot of celebrity privacy cases. Two, because as a first-generation law student, this class gives me access to information I couldn’t get from other sources. After we started breaking down exam structure, I realized that I didn’t misunderstand the material last semester, I just didn’t go deep enough in my analysis of those issues. Three, we “get real” about law school. We talk about how law school affects you mentally and emotionally. We do a lot of practice analysis so we get about 400% more feedback in this class than any other class I’ve taken so far. Four, my professor (shout-out Professor Wells!) is really great. She encourages a lot of discussion and encourages us to approach these cases from all angles. She has really reminded me about why the law is so powerful, because it affects people’s everyday lives.
I genuinely think that struggle is part of succeeding. Law school is hard for everyone. Yes, everyone. Struggling doesn’t make you lesser than your classmates who got an A; it means that you’re still learning and are doing something outside of your comfort-zone. Do I wish that I got all A’s last semester? Of course. Am I grateful for the opportunity to learn more about where I can improve so that in the long-run I understand the whole system of law school better? You bet. Hopefully this can be your reminder that struggling is not an obstacle to success but rather it is the catalyst for amazing things to come!
See you in the next one,
Kelsey