Opening Statement

Tonight we had our opening statements in Criminal Trial Practice. I spent the weekend preparing for it, including spending about an hour in the courtroom at school, practicing and getting "used to" the space. That was extremely helpful. Our professor had suggested not to practice it more than 3 times, but since it has been over 20 years since I did a oral presentation in a setting similar to this, I did it a lot more than that- probably a dozen or more times. I only used a brief outline, and didn't really even need that.

I am SOOOO happy! My professor's comments on my performance were, "very, very good" and "very polished". I did really good! I want to do this (be a prosecutor) after school, and I am so excited that it went this well. I had been afraid that if I didn't do well, I was going to have to figure out some other direction to go. It's just so cool, like being on a natural high, to do something that was kind of scary, but do it and succeed.

This class is only pass/fail, but it is the most important class I am taking. I want to learn everything I can in and from this class. My professor is so helpful, with all the practical, real life stuff he tells us. I'm just trying to soak it all in.