Yes, there is a bandwagon and I jumped on it. Most of you know that I am NOT a baseball fan. I think that the season is too long, the players are too coddled, and the games are too long. At the same time, I can appreciate the jolt of electricity that the White Sox World Series win provides for the city of Chicago. Here in Chicago, we have gone through the usual skipping of autumn and it is now the beginning of the 10 month winter. The Sox have not won a World Series since Walt Disney was in high school 88 years ago (literally, I saw the graphic). Although I am not a baseball fan, I can appreciate the accomplishment and am happy for my friends who are Sox fans. Tomorrow morning, there will be a lot of bleary eyed Chicagoans making their way to work, but all of them will have a smile on their face because their team is a world champion.
Most of the rest of the last 2 weeks has been a never-ending cycle of work. I have just completed a major legal writing assignment (one that will be worth almost ½ of my final grade), and I am tired. At the same time, I feel pretty good about how the weeks are going. I am gaining a better understanding of the law every day and am feeling more comfortable volunteering in class. I am able to get through the reading at a faster clip than before, and I am finding myself with small bits of free time. My friend Aaron came to visit last weekend, and we attended a Chicago Bears football team. Of course, I was stressing about the work that I was not doing, but here it is Wednesday and I have already caught up. I am not stressed even though I have just a month of classes left. Thanks to my friends and family, especially my brother and my roommate, I have been able to keep a proper perspective and not stress out too much. Thanks to all of you who have contacted me directly to encourage me. Although my posts have been fewer and farther between as the weeks have gone by, that doesn’t mean that I am not thinking of everyone. The rest of the week looks pretty good. I have done my reading for tomorrow and Contracts reading for Friday. I would like to get an early start on my reading for Monday, but my class outlines need to be completed. The weekend looks to be a lot of fun (well, a small part of it anyway). After class on Friday, I intend to get a lot of my reading for Monday done. I am then going to dinner with a group of friends to celebrate a birthday. On Saturday, I will be at the library during the day and attending a party in the evening. On Sunday, the day will be spent in the library, but that is all right as I have more than enough work to do. After last weekend, I intend to take advantage of all of the weekends to come.
The only bummer is that I have not been to the movies in 3 months. I think that the last movie that I saw was the Wedding Crashers. Serenity, The Constant Gardner, and a History of Violence have all come and gone, but I have not watched them. With the new Harry Potter film, the Chronicles of Narnia, the second Underworld film, and Walk the Line (the Johnny Cash biopic that is on my list of movies to see) all coming out within the next couple of months, I intend to take advantage of my student discount and catch up at the movies during the holidays.
Well, it’s 11:30 now and I still have some work to do. It never ends!
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Sunday, October 16, 2005
A serious entry...
It is pretty hard to figure out things to write. I have found myself in the conundrum of trying to please my audience without really focusing on why I started this blog in the first place…namely for maintaining my own sanity while I start this new part of my life. Allow me to apologize (again!) in advance if the entries are boring; I won’t take it personally if you tell me that this is so.
The weeks have been flying by. Before I knew it, over half of the semester has flown by. My life is pretty simple at this point. It consists of work and school. I try to fit in the occasional football game every once in a while and I still get my workouts in, but the monotony is starting to get to me a little bit. For those of you who don’t know, allow me to put my current life in perspective with my immediate past. Last year at this time, I was flying around 4 days a week. Most of these trips were overnight trips for the company I worked for, Bio-Rad. I was a field scientist for them (based out of Chicago, but covering around 14 states). The life was pretty fun. I was the consummate business travelers and knew where are the electrical outlets were at the most out of the way airports (Grand Forks, anybody?), ‘where the coolest restaurants were in most cities around the Midwest and Colorado (the Rio in Fort Collins is still tops), and access to some of the coolest science tools a geek like me could imagine. I had an expense account, a free car, a nice salary, and the support of my superiors. With this as the backdrop, many of you might wonder why I left it all behind. In all honesty, this move to law school is something that I thought about since getting my doctorate 5 years ago. I started my research into law school when I started my fellowship in Chicago. I knew that I wanted to work in intellectual property litigation, focusing on biotechnology, but I figured that the best way to get the experience that I need was by working in academia for a bit and then switching over to the private sector. With 4 years of this behind me (2 years for each), the time was right for me to make my move. Now, here I am, a 34 year old student. It is hard living on less than half of what I used to earn, but at this point I am thankful that law school take up so much time. There isn’t any time to go out and spend any money. I have many friends in law school, especially within my 2 study groups, but there just doesn’t seem to be enough time to socialize. I have forgotten how much energy 22-24 year-olds seem to have, as my fellow students can seemingly move from an evening of drinking straight into marathon studying. I have to recognize my limits in this regard.
So here I am, halfway through the first semester and beginning to feel it. I am thankful to have a great support system in place-my friends in Chicago. Over the last 2 weeks, the most important thing is that I have regained contact with 2 very close friends. My friend Mike and I have seen each other through thick and thin during these last 4 years, and due to a combination of my travel schedule and some stresses within his life, we lost touch. This is now behind us and we are speaking again. I have also regained contact with my friend Missy, a fellow law student and one of my best friends from my time at Northwestern. I tried to pull away from many of my friends as law school started just to keep my focus, but Missy has always been one of my closest confidantes. I screwed up royally by shutting her out. Now my sanity is returning, and I can’t help but think that it is more than coincidence that I am communicating with Missy again. So, to Mike and Missy, thanks for your patience with me.
The list is still long of people that I have been shutting out, but with these 2 lifelines intact again, I hope to work on the rest. Missy, Mike, my roommate Eric, and my older brother have been awesome in helping me through this first semester. I can almost see the end in sight. The thought of exams are not filling me with dread (yet), my classes are completely manageable, and I am getting a handle on balancing my life as a student with my life as the Artful Blogger.
The weeks have been flying by. Before I knew it, over half of the semester has flown by. My life is pretty simple at this point. It consists of work and school. I try to fit in the occasional football game every once in a while and I still get my workouts in, but the monotony is starting to get to me a little bit. For those of you who don’t know, allow me to put my current life in perspective with my immediate past. Last year at this time, I was flying around 4 days a week. Most of these trips were overnight trips for the company I worked for, Bio-Rad. I was a field scientist for them (based out of Chicago, but covering around 14 states). The life was pretty fun. I was the consummate business travelers and knew where are the electrical outlets were at the most out of the way airports (Grand Forks, anybody?), ‘where the coolest restaurants were in most cities around the Midwest and Colorado (the Rio in Fort Collins is still tops), and access to some of the coolest science tools a geek like me could imagine. I had an expense account, a free car, a nice salary, and the support of my superiors. With this as the backdrop, many of you might wonder why I left it all behind. In all honesty, this move to law school is something that I thought about since getting my doctorate 5 years ago. I started my research into law school when I started my fellowship in Chicago. I knew that I wanted to work in intellectual property litigation, focusing on biotechnology, but I figured that the best way to get the experience that I need was by working in academia for a bit and then switching over to the private sector. With 4 years of this behind me (2 years for each), the time was right for me to make my move. Now, here I am, a 34 year old student. It is hard living on less than half of what I used to earn, but at this point I am thankful that law school take up so much time. There isn’t any time to go out and spend any money. I have many friends in law school, especially within my 2 study groups, but there just doesn’t seem to be enough time to socialize. I have forgotten how much energy 22-24 year-olds seem to have, as my fellow students can seemingly move from an evening of drinking straight into marathon studying. I have to recognize my limits in this regard.
So here I am, halfway through the first semester and beginning to feel it. I am thankful to have a great support system in place-my friends in Chicago. Over the last 2 weeks, the most important thing is that I have regained contact with 2 very close friends. My friend Mike and I have seen each other through thick and thin during these last 4 years, and due to a combination of my travel schedule and some stresses within his life, we lost touch. This is now behind us and we are speaking again. I have also regained contact with my friend Missy, a fellow law student and one of my best friends from my time at Northwestern. I tried to pull away from many of my friends as law school started just to keep my focus, but Missy has always been one of my closest confidantes. I screwed up royally by shutting her out. Now my sanity is returning, and I can’t help but think that it is more than coincidence that I am communicating with Missy again. So, to Mike and Missy, thanks for your patience with me.
The list is still long of people that I have been shutting out, but with these 2 lifelines intact again, I hope to work on the rest. Missy, Mike, my roommate Eric, and my older brother have been awesome in helping me through this first semester. I can almost see the end in sight. The thought of exams are not filling me with dread (yet), my classes are completely manageable, and I am getting a handle on balancing my life as a student with my life as the Artful Blogger.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
I'm back!
Well, it has been an eventful few days! It all started on Friday. As you might recall, I was on call for Torts last Friday. When the professor called on me, I nailed it! I was pretty happy about knowing the case and having the professor let me go on with no corrections. The high lasted until Contracts class. Halfway through the class, the professor called on me for the first time, and I tanked. I was horrible. I might have felt better had I not known the answer, but I knew the answer. I just froze like a deer in headlights. My friends tried to make me feel better, but I just wanted another chance.
One of the nice things about law school is the anonymous grading policy. This way, students can interact with professors without having it influence your grades. After tanking in class, I sent the professor an e-mail apologizing for my performance and my desire to have another chance. I have a feeling that my contracts professor takes it as a personal failure if we fail her, and she is my favorite professor. But first, there was the weekend.
On Saturday, my roommate and I had some friends come over for a night of relaxation. We even ended up having a live band, as one of my classmates is a fiddler in a bluegrass band here in Chicago. He and the band came over after finishing their gigs, and they set up in my living room. They were awesome, and everyone at the party enjoyed it. Morning came too soon, and Eric and I set about cleaning the apartment. I ended up finishing up my Civil Procedure work for Monday and enjoyed a pretty good football game in the evening.
With Monday came the dawning of the new week. In Con Law, Professor Roberts called on me (again!), and I did all right. In Civil Procedure, we were studying about how jurisdiction is assigned among the states. I was just ready to get started on the afternoon’s work. I finally got home at 9 PM and finished work at 11 PM. Tuesday arrived with Torts and Contracts. In Contracts, I figured the professor would not call on me, as she hardly ever calls on the same people 2 days in a row. She ended up calling on me, and this time I didn’t freeze. Furthermore, she was very encouraging. Even though she never responded to my e-mail, I think that she appreciated my efforts. It has been a very long time since I had a professor who has challenged me as much as my Contracts professor, but I know that I am getting an excellent education in the theories of contracts because of it.
The rest of the week looks to be pretty relaxed. I will start work on my outlines tomorrow, as there is no project due in legal writing (yes!).
One of the nice things about law school is the anonymous grading policy. This way, students can interact with professors without having it influence your grades. After tanking in class, I sent the professor an e-mail apologizing for my performance and my desire to have another chance. I have a feeling that my contracts professor takes it as a personal failure if we fail her, and she is my favorite professor. But first, there was the weekend.
On Saturday, my roommate and I had some friends come over for a night of relaxation. We even ended up having a live band, as one of my classmates is a fiddler in a bluegrass band here in Chicago. He and the band came over after finishing their gigs, and they set up in my living room. They were awesome, and everyone at the party enjoyed it. Morning came too soon, and Eric and I set about cleaning the apartment. I ended up finishing up my Civil Procedure work for Monday and enjoyed a pretty good football game in the evening.
With Monday came the dawning of the new week. In Con Law, Professor Roberts called on me (again!), and I did all right. In Civil Procedure, we were studying about how jurisdiction is assigned among the states. I was just ready to get started on the afternoon’s work. I finally got home at 9 PM and finished work at 11 PM. Tuesday arrived with Torts and Contracts. In Contracts, I figured the professor would not call on me, as she hardly ever calls on the same people 2 days in a row. She ended up calling on me, and this time I didn’t freeze. Furthermore, she was very encouraging. Even though she never responded to my e-mail, I think that she appreciated my efforts. It has been a very long time since I had a professor who has challenged me as much as my Contracts professor, but I know that I am getting an excellent education in the theories of contracts because of it.
The rest of the week looks to be pretty relaxed. I will start work on my outlines tomorrow, as there is no project due in legal writing (yes!).
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