Anti-Climatic

So last week turned out to be insane. I don't really know if I will recover from it ever, but if it's any indication that recovery is a long way off, I took the entire day off yesterday (unheard of) and spent it doing nothing of importance (by the way, I don't recommend going to any shopping areas the Saturday before Thanksgiving).
Why was last week so insane? The Memo. Yes, the dreaded memo. It's done now-- 18 hr, 20 emails to the prof, an hr citation session with the TA... but it's done. Is it good? Uhhhh no. But it's done. And turned in. I am sure I could have made it better if I had tweaked it more, or somehow made it clearer. But there comes that time when it's just better to let it go then to try and work with it anymore. So Thursday night at 8pm I printed it out and was done... turned it in at 8:26AM on Friday. Not that I was looking at my watch or anything (that's 4 days and 4 min early for anyone who's counting). But it was done. It was like turning in my thesis--completely anticlimatic. All that hard work and effort... for what? Nothing. It was just done and finished. I won't know till the end of January what I got on it, but do I really care? I dunno... I would like to say "I don't care at all what I got because I know I did a good job on it..." But I do care. A bit. Ok, a lot a bit. I want to do well on it. I want to get an A in Legal Writing. Ironically, I am fine with getting a B in every single class as long as it isn't Legal Writing. Weird, no? But it's done & over now. That's 1 class done, 5 more to go.

FIVE?! Yes, FIVE. Unlike most other rational law schools, mine does year long blocks for every class. Insane? Apparently it's to help us retain the info more. Really I think it's just to torture us with 5 finals both semesters. Ugh. More on this later.

For now I am going to stare out at the rainy sky on this Sunday and marvel at the fact that I still feel numb, 48 hr after finishing the biggest assignment I have done in 2 years...

Autumn Leaves & Time

So everyone always laments about not having balance in their lives during law school-- about living, breathing, sleeping school. But really? It's all about choice, it's about what you CHOOSE to do and when. It's simple: everyone has the same number of hours in a day, they just use them differently. Personally, I know the importance of eating, sleeping & exercising-- nothing can substitute for a good night's sleep, it just doesn't work. There is also nothing that substitutes for a good run outside on top of the wet asphalt covered in fall leaves--there's something mystical, head clearing... something so basic about it that just makes stress bleed off.

But I digress yet again. So I just don't get it when kids lament about not having time to do things. They seem to have enough time to go out and party and drink and hang out with friends... that's the way they choose to spend their down time. So how exactly should I feel bad for them when come the weekend they have a ton of work to do? Or when they are up late trying to catch up on reading? Yeah... my sympathy level? Zero. Maybe I should go out and party... but you know what? That's never been an interest of mine. I just don't get it. I love going to a wine bar with a few girlfriends, or a sports bar with my man, but otherwise? Just to "go out"?? Uhhhmmm nah. No thanks. I choose to spend my time elsewhere. I like to chill out and let my body relax during my down time.

So why does all of this matter anyway? Because it's memo hunting season. And it's just starting to get interesting. Outlines are due tomorrow, and then on Nov 20th memos are do. It's like watching a social experiment--watching the procrastinators, the spazzes, and then everyone else in between... I get a good chuckle out of it and sometimes will add a little fuel to the fire to just watch it flame up. But really, I am so far past the spazzing over 1 assignment that this whole memo thing doesn't have me even concerned. It's meant to be an exercise in writing and an exercise in time management. A little a day. Didn't anyone every read the "Tortoise and the Hare" when they were little? Can't write it in a weekend-- you have no perspective, you lose ability to really pace and think things through. I don't want to post yet just how far I have gotten because people will be pissed one way or the other. But suffice it to say, next Monday and Tuesday (19th & 20th), I will be sitting on the sidelines smiling and watching the social experiment really peak. In the meantime, I'll keep plowing through... bit by bit... and running on the wet, leaf covered asphalt.

The Memo.

Let's talk about The Memo. It deserves caps, it really does. It's a nightmare. It seems so easy: Take the assignment, do some research, find some applicable case law, statutes, codes, whatever and then write a 15pp paper on it. Simple, right? But no. First is the problem that you have to write it in a specific legalese format... Conclusion, Rule, Explanation, Analysis, Conclusion (again)... and the sections have to be in a specific order. Second problem is that of course the assignment has all these twists and turns and little things that cause headaches. It's a lot like trying to write a term paper about the astrobiology of Mars. The astro-whaaaaat? Yeah, exactly. You have to learn everything about the background of the topic, the judicial & legislative history, the background of the client... all before you can even write.

I am at the cusp of writing, at the point where I am peering over the edge of the cliff, waiting to jump off... waiting for what? The right wind, the right moment. I take a deep breath and dive...

The Dreaded Memo

So it's 1L Memo writing season across the country. Imagine it like this: take your most dreaded seminar paper you ever wrote, add in your most dreaded manuscript you ever wrote, add a dash of a horrid topic and whamo, you have the Memo. It's the "term paper" for all 1Ls, that one little piece of writing that we all dread and will probably loathe even long after we've turned it in. Why is it so bad? Because it brings out all of our insecurities about legal writing. Sure, we've spent the semester doing various attempts at writing a good memo, but those weren't graded. This one, this one little Memo, determines our entire grade for legal writing and with it, a lot of other things. If you aren't good at legal writing, employers are going to notice. If you aren't good at legal writing, it's going to be hard to make Law Review or to give employers a good writing sample. A class that is just 1.5 credits basically becomes the class every 1L loves to hate. You can can feel it in the air, you can hear it in the way people talk-- the memo is the real unknown, the real thing that will shake the confidence of even the most overly-confident 1Ls... it's what will level the playing field. It's the one thing that everyone has heard about and everyone fears.

Too dramatic of wording for a simple paper? Come visit a group of 1Ls here right now and you'll see. In the meantime, I am going to go bang my head against my laptop and stare at the blinking cursor, which is calmly beating at 82 blinks a minute.