Notebook

A 1E’s Typical Schedule

Jae Wakeling is a first-year student at Loyola Law School — she works full-time as a paralegal while attending Loyola’s hybrid evening program.

Happy Daylight Savings! In honor of this time-based holiday, I wanted to give some insight on what a typical weekday looks like for me as a part-time student, full-time paralegal, and also 24/7 human. As an evening student, I only have classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, and Wednesdays my classes are remote. Here is what my schedule looks like on Wednesdays:

8:00 AM – Wake up, get ready, eat breakfast. Since I work from home, I commute only about 20 feet to my office (the spare bedroom).

8:30 AM – Check my work email, review if any urgent matters need addressing first. If not, I will get started on whatever projects I might be currently working on. This week, I am working on researching and drafting an opposition to a motion to dismiss and preparing a post-trial fee petition, both of which are projects that will take me a good chunk of time.

12:00 PM – Break time! I usually take a walk with my dog, Rain, and eat a quick lunch. If I haven’t already, I will meal-prep my dinner for the night.

1:00 PM – Back to work.

5:00 PM – I’m done for the day (with work). I will usually go to the gym and try to get in a quick 30-minute cardio workout.

5:45 PM – Heat up my meal that I meal-prepped.

6:00 PM – Torts (remotely) begins. In the spring semester, on Wednesdays I only have Torts and Civil Procedure. In the fall, on Wednesdays I had Contracts and Legal Writing. I am usually eating my dinner during class.

7:00 PM – Torts ends, I have a 15-minute break.

7:15 PM – Civ Pro starts. This is the longest class for the night so I usually have to be snacking to keep my energy up during it.

9:00 (ish) PM – Our Civ Pro professor usually gives us a 5-10 minute break in the middle of class to break up the 2.5 hour-long class.

9:45 PM – Classes are done for the day!

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