First year of Law School- Part 1: Balance

I figured there are going to be various topics I'm going to want to comment on. I personally HATE reading blog entries that go on and on. If you can't say it in a few short paragraphs, I won't read it. I try to keep my entries to the length I know I personally would read if they were posted elsewhere. So, I will be dividing up my summary of the year over a few days and posts.

My first topic is balance. The idea of a law school student have a balanced life is probably not something many people have considered. Even though I was committed to doing my best in school, I would not let it come at the expense of my family, or other commitments I have. It wasn't going to be worth it to me if it did. I'm happy to report that I still managed to spend time with my husband, children and family, as well as stay involved in the Bible study I've been involved with for 6 years, while continuing to serve there in a volunteer position as well. Though I did not think I would be able to travel as much as we are used to, I still was able to get in 5 trips during the school year, which I find amazing. (Went to Hawaii over Thanksgiving with hubby for our 10th anniversary, took the kids to SF after Christmas, went with hubby to Vegas for his birthday in February, took my daughter to Boston for MIT's campus preview weekend in April and we all went to Disneyland over Easter break to celebrate her 18th birthday.) The trips were shorter than I would have ideally liked, but I still managed to travel WHILE IN LAW SCHOOL.

Because I have the luxury of not having to work, I attended afternoon classes. I normally used my mornings to read, brief and study. After class, I would use some of the evenings to type in my class notes. I honestly do not like working after 8pm, so I rarely did. I usually spent the remainder of the evenings relaxing with hubby and/or kids. On weekends, I ended up working on papers or catching up on any work I didn't finish during the week. I tried to always make sure I didn't work the entire weekend and spent some time with my family.

During the orientation week at school, one of the things said to us by a then beginning second year student was that he didn't see his kids the previous year. While I'm sure it was an exaggeration (or at least I hope it was), all I could think was "how sad". I would not let that be me. Because this is my daughter's last year at home, it was even more important to me. I did not want her last memory of me before going away was that I didn't have time for her. I made an effort to drop what I was working on when she came into my room and wanted to talk.

I wouldn't have done it any other way. I doubt my ranking at the end of the year will be impressive, but it was more important to me to keep things in perspective. And I think I did!