Wednesday, April 19, 2006

The first year is almost done!

Exams start in 2 weeks, but for some reason I have not started panicking. I am sure that the panic will set in eventually, but I think that, having gone through the grind of exams once already, I am better able to gauge how to prepare this time around. Furthermore, my approach to class preparation and note taking started out smoothly this semester. Last semester, I was struggling with trying to figure out what to take down in class. In the month since my last update, precious little has happened. Most of the time has been spent studying and working on law school stuff. I still keep in contact with some of my old friends from Bio-Rad and from my previous life in the real world, but for the most part, the only daily personal interaction that I have is with my classmates in school. Most of my weekends are spent in the library or at home studying. Part of me is looking forward to the summer when I will be able to give my brain a little rest, but as I have decided to take Criminal Procedure this summer, I will still be working on the grind for 2 months out of 3.

Yes, this morning we had to schedule our classes for next fall. I will be taking Business Organizations, Copyright and Trademarks, Evidence, and Legal Writing III. A normal course-load is 5 classes, but having spent so much time on Legal Writing this semester, I am well aware that I will have to put in extra time and effort in the class next semester in order to succeed. Taking Criminal Procedure over the summer will help as well, as that class is 3 credit hours. A total of 86 credit hours are required to graduate from law school. After this year, I will have 31 (Wow!). At the beginning of next fall, I will have 34, and at the beginning of next spring I hope to have 46. That means that I will have to take 40 more credit hours spread out over 3 semesters…not too bad.

I have also taken on some other responsibilities. I was elected Vice-President of the Intellectual Property Law Society for next year. We have a full slate of ideas to plan and organize over the summer for the incoming 1Ls, and we have to get going on planning our speaker series for next year. I was also selected to be a staff writer for the DePaul Journal of Art and Entertainment Law. It was a tough competition, and I am glad to be a writer, as journal experience is looked upon most favorably by prospective employers. I haven’t had the time that I had hoped to devote to the blog, but I intend to keep it going and make it more regular. I need to work in some more of the stuff I am reading about in law. I hope that it will not be too boring for everyone.

Well, I am going to sleep now. It is midnight in Chicago, and I have to get up early tomorrow morning to review my notes before Contracts. I hope that everyone is having a good spring…