Thoughts on the first semester of law school

Something I heard about law school before starting this August was, "The first year, they try to scare you to death. The second year, they try to work you to death. And the third year, they try to bore you to death."

I can only comment on the first year portion so far, but it is definitely true. It started the first orientation week, with the horror stories we were fed by the now second years. Oh, it is SO bad, and SO hard. You will never see your kids, you won't sleep. You're lucky if you get the required 65 to pass. They went on and on. They had us all questioning WHY we were even there. Then, of course, they kept talking about doing briefs and making outlines (without explaining what either were), and like clueless idiots, we all were wondering HOW THE HELL DO I BRIEF A CASE AND WHAT KIND OF OUTLINE ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

The orientation was not helpful. It was fear inducing. If that was their goal, they more than succeeded. Perhaps they were trying to weed out a few of the most weak hearted early in the process. But, I tried to keep the comment I had heard in mind, and NOT let them scare me. It was a game, I told myself....don't let them beat you!

I had always kind of thought that for a person to do well in law school, they would most likely be a liberal arts type of person.....good at reading tons, writing tons, and basically good at BSing their way through any situation. That kind of worried me because I am NOT that type of person. I am the more mathematically inclined, very organized, analytical, methodical. Another one of the quotes I heard prior to school starting was, "If you can't wow the professors with wisdom, baffle them with bs." That quote seemed to confirm my fears.

But I have found out that is not true, at least not at my school. You HAVE to know how to spot the issues. You HAVE to know the law. You HAVE to apply the law to the facts on the case, to draw your conclusion. There is no room for making stuff up or BSing. One professor was lamenting after a quiz last month that some students did not use ANY law on the entire quiz! Their answers consisted of them explaining what they thought was "fair". Needless to say, the professor was NOT pleased.

I have quite pleasantly realized that my analytical and methodical manner has served me quite well. I was able to approach all the exams and each problem on them in a logical and rational way, thinking through it, and going through the steps in order to completely discuss each issue. Honestly, I can't imagine doing it any other way. I feel that the way I am and do things helped me to do very well this semester, even though initially I had been afraid I would be struggling because of it.

Maybe I say this naively (because I don't have my grades back yet), but I am not struggling. I am enjoying and succeeding. Here's to being 1/6 of the way through law school!