Ramsey Cooper is a first-year student at Loyola Law School dedicated to centering community and humanity through her legal studies and career.
Everyone told me that this semester would fly by and I didn’t believe them. Now, it’s almost April and it feels like I only blinked and we got here. After turning in my brief and taking the midterm, my days have somehow seemed shorter. But, this doesn’t mean the days are any less busy. I try to go to most informational lunch events, board applications for organizations were recently released, and clinic applications also just opened. On top of that, I am still searching for a 1L summer position that I feel would rejuvenate my ambition. My mornings are filled with readings and my evenings are filled with cover letters.
In this chaos, I try to remember how much I have grown over the last school year. In August, I was a completely different person than I am now. I have gone through a finals season and juggled life events with academic expectations. I use the healthy coping mechanisms I developed last semester very often these days. I try to start my mornings with yoga before I crack open a book and I try to end the day coloring or reading a mindless fiction book to turn off my brain for the night. The beach has remained a constant in my mindfulness routine. Being in nature whenever I get the chance has done wonders for my stress levels.
I hope to continue with my holistic approach to academics for the rest of my law school journey, even as the challenges persist.