Antarctica ~ The Weepies

There is a saying among lawyers/law professors/law students: "In your first year of law school, they confuse you to death. In your second year they work you to death. And in your third year they bore you to death."

I cannot fully vouch for the truth of the witticism, yet I can certainly say that during my first year there were times I was confused to death. The other times, I suppose, I was just numb to any new information that was being thrown at me. At this point in time, I have no idea whether in the third year I'll meet my demise through boredom.

But as for being worked to death this year...well, I'm a little afraid that I might prove the statement to be correct.

I knew that classes were going to impose heavy workloads upon me--over 70 pages in just one class, assigned Tuesday and due today, for example (thank goodness for case headnotes)--but it's still a nasty surprise when you can never feel totally relaxed because you haven't read that 84-page case on a failed immigration application.

I've also decided to take the plunge and volunteer for Student Legal Services, which will have me doing a shift every other week where I'll be dispensing legal advice to low-income members of the community. Scary, I know. Hopefully that won't involve too much, but sometimes volunteers are required to go to court or appear before different tribunals on behalf of our "clients". I suppose we'll see how that goes.

This is also the year where we all scramble to try and secure for ourselves articling positions with the firms of our choice. This involves preparing applications and researching firms to see where we want to go and who we want to work with. As for preparing applications, who am I to say what a firm wants to know about me? Will they care that I spent two summers packing wedding cake-tops with bubble-wrap or that I accompanied on the piano a bunch of pre-teens in a production of the musical "A Little Princess"? Will Mr. Big-firm Lawyer want me as an articling student if I let him know I can touch my tongue to my nose, and will it be points against me if he finds out I can't fit my body through a coat-hanger? All very important issues to which I'll need to find solutions.

As for where I want to go, it's very difficult to say what my circumstances will be in two years. Right now, I'm single and unattached and able and willing to go really anywhere as long as I'll get paid. On the other hand, who's to say I'll still be in that situation in two years? That's a long time in young adult years. I'm just going to have to ponder it and make it a matter of prayer. And then, maybe I won't get a choice--maybe I'll only have one job offer and that'll decide for me!