Week 2

Week 2 is over.  My ability to focus on study has been tested this week.  The workload is beginning to bear down, and the pace is unrelenting.  I have had to adapt my study style, giving up the deep notation and documentation of all readings.  It takes too long, and I feel like it helps only minimally.  Another way to say it is that I am sacrificing some depth for the sake of breadth.  I may be able to revisit these subjects more in depth once I have a larger view of the whole.

I had my first of perhaps many moments of becoming entirely lost in class.  As class neared its end, it seemed as though my professor was speaking in tongues.  However, that prompted me to do some extra studying in that class, which I hope will catch me up to where I can translate the alien language of the law.

I feel like I have had a small success in heading up a study group for my section.  Through Facebook, I was able to organize a group for my entire section, which is about 22 people, and several of us met after class on Friday.  Although I selfishly benefit from review with my peers, I hope that others might find the review helpful as well.

I thought I would be able to post more, but the little free waking time I have has been dedicated to relaxation.  Hopefully I can at least keep posting weekly.

Week 1

The first week has come and gone. Before I know it, I'll be done with the semester, then the year, then law school entirely. One reason for this blog is so that I can savor and remember these times.

Law school is amazing. There is an immersion into the material that I have never experienced before in any of my schooling. There is a strange pressure to perform, to not let yourself down, to not let the school down, and to not let your classmates down. There is an odd insecurity among law students that they might not be keeping up with their peers. I find myself resisting the urge to assess my own standing, although it is probably too soon to know if I am top of the class or holding up the cellar. One thing is certain, digesting the material is tough. It is seriously challenging to read all of the assigned cases and essays critically. Thankfully at the moment I am almost caught up.

Law itself is intriguing, and I think that man-made laws are perhaps one of those primary philosophical differences between humans and animals. We don't simply live by the Natural Law as animals do (i.e. survival of the fittest). As humans we ascribe to something beyond the Natural Law. Each person, whether he wants to or not, is automatically opted into the laws of the land in which he lives. We each take upon ourselves the burden of obeying (or disobeying) the law voluntarily. This allows for society to function. We can trust each other because we trust in the legitimacy of our laws.