Hey, Jury of Peers! We are back, and I am raring to get back into the groove of things. Don’t get me wrong – having almost a month off school was amazing. I read 10 books (yes, I know – I’m a nerd) and did a lot of walking/hiking and just generally not thinking about laws or cases…at least not voluntarily. Before I go on too much about my break and all the books I read (list available on request), let’s talk about finals!
Final exams in 1L are spread out – with a couple days between each exam. It makes for a long exam period in those final weeks of the year. But it’s nice having time between each exam to catch your breath before start the studying process again.
I won’t sugarcoat things. Finals in law school are hard. Some of the exams are 4+ hours and you need to know every last detail of the rules and cases you studied during the semester. It’s tiring, and by the end of the exam period, you never want to look at a law book again. By my last exam, even though it was one of my favorite classes, I was feeling burnt out. It’s a difficult three weeks.
And while it is tiring and difficult, it’s all part of the journey. Whenever I felt like I was really struggling, I reached out to my friends who were going through the same thing. They answered my questions, and I answered theirs. We commiserated together and celebrated at the end of each exam. After our last test, we went out for tacos and got to talk about things not related to law school. Finding good people like that is critical to the whole law school experience. It made me feel less alone, even on the days when I was studying in my room alone for hours on end. They were feeling overwhelmed and tired too. And at the end of the whole exam period, they were feeling just as relieved, exhausted, and happy as I was.
Over break, I didn’t do anything related to law school, besides periodically checking my law school email and to see if grades were posted. Two of the books I read were related to social justice law and how we can better treat mental health in the law – two things I’m super interested in – but even those books weren’t too difficult to read.
It’s good to take time off. After the hard work and the tough studying, it’s really really important to remember that you deserve a break.
Now onto the next semester of adventures! Talk soon!