With 12 weeks to go in the semester, I feel like I've established a rhythm.
My theory when starting this was that I could do it in the wasted leisure time of my life. That's mostly, but not entirely true in practice.
The time I have to spend in class really does put a crimp on my other activities. I'll just have to play this one by ear.
1L isn't that flexible and although the schedules are pretty convenient, they take up almost the entirety of the working day. I have Monday mornings off. Friday afternoons off, and other than that, the best I can manage is an hour here or there during the work-day to pursue activities that can only be done during the work day.
On the other hand, I am still watching movies. Still able to participate to a large degree in my son's sports activities.
So, it's a lot of work, but it could be worse.
Things should get a little better here, soon. We should be hiring a full-time office person for the business. That person acts as the business admin, but also as my personal assistant. Yes, I'll be a student with a personal assistant.
This will relieve me of my already minimal duties at the biz. Somebody else will be able to handle all the bookkeeping entries, pay the bills, etc. So, I'll be back to the workload I had when I spent at least a little bit of every day either on the driving range or on the course at the golf club.
I also noticed this week that some of the other students are already falling behind / blowing off work. In one of my classes, the prof called on 3 people in a row to give us the facts of the case we were supposed to brief. All 3 had not done the work.
The trick in law school is not just to master the material and pass the bar. 80-90% of the folks who finish law school can manage that. (This, of course, doesn't take full account of the 20-30% who drop out during or after 1L.)
The trick is that you need to outperform your peers for your grade. There is a forced curve.
In B-school, if you could master the material to an A level of mastery, you got an A. If the entire class got As, the prof probably wasn't bothered. It didn't work out that way. I think most people got Bs. Some people got Cs, but more people got As than Cs in every class.
So, to get good grades, you have to outperform your fellow students. Law school is competitive by its very nature.
I've been on the lookout for the folks who will fill out the left side of the curve, and generally, it's hard to find them. The kids in my class all seem pretty smart.
Every now and then, though, somebody will give a very unmistakable indication that they're going to be the part of the class that is having difficulty with just maintaining the minimal GPA. Bless their souls, but you can probably get into law school with an average intellect if you managed to get a degree and did okay on the LSAT. That, of course, doesn't mean it'll be easy if you chose to do that.
Hearing about classmates who are falling behind? I know you shouldn't take joy in other people's troubles, but right now, my main concern is having the time to put together good outlines and practice for exams. I can't imagine trying to make up ground on reading I was supposed to have done as well.
Of course, at this point, nothing proves anything. It'll all boil down to how well we apply things on the final exams.
In the mean time, though, during week 1, it seemed like everybody else was brilliant. Now, I'm starting to see that maybe not all of them are. Near as I can figure, I will need to be in about the top third to maintain my scholarship. I'd like to do better than that. However, that's just speculation at this point.
I have met a couple of other students who are parents. Not so many others who are my age, but I feel a connection with the ones who are parents. We have a set of challenges that a young, unencumbered student won't have to worry about.
Also, at some point, maybe during Christmas Break, I need to revisit why I'm doing this and what I hope to accomplish. I would love to do an internship with the SEC over the Summer and try to get a job with them after graduation. However, the internship would mean time away from my son. Working for the SEC would happen just as he's going to High School.
Sometimes you just have to make choices. At the current time, I'm leaning towards the idea that the important thing is to be with him until he flies the coop. I suspect I may have deep regrets if I miss out on his last few years at home.
Now, a job in Cleveland, Columbus, Chicago, Detroit, etc., wouldn't be so bad. Those are all 4 hours or less from my house. I could spend weekends here. However, DC? That's basically airline distance. So, maybe I need to focus on available jobs in the immediate midwest.
I also feel pretty good because I feel like I'm getting into the rhythm of this. I'm actually gaining energy and hitting the books harder and more efficiently as I go through this. It's been a long time since I'f been a student, my one semester of Arabic notwithstanding.
So, in the mean time, no use talking about law school. Time to get back to doing it. I'll be in the library this weekend doing another workbook project for Legal Research and Writing, but then, thank god, there won't be any more workbook assignments from that workbook anymore. That workbook has been the bane of my existence for the first month of Law School.
The semester is starting to gain momentum. 3 weeks are done. 12 to go. After next week, we'll have basically completed our first month, with just two and a half more to go. Then, finals. Then, crying or jubilation.
So far, if I had to give my life a report card, it would be:
Family: A-. Basically doing the stuff I need to do. Minimal negative impact on time with son, but noticeable.
Business: B-. Keeping up. Haven't really missed anything, but we'll see. Less time than usual, but I'm able to do as much or more than I did prior to starting law school.
Fitness: C. Not failing, but room for substantial improvement. Probably working out 3 times a week versus 4 or 5 prior to. Need to get better at finding the time for fitness.
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