It’s a new semester, and only my second in law school, so I’m still figuring out the most effective way for me to read and study, aside from figuring out the material. On Sunday, I was still without word on my computer, so I schlepped to the coffee shop with an old fashioned notebook and wrote my reading notes. This was difficult reading— all about the forming of the constitution, one of the earliest supreme court cases, etc. Once a case is over 100 years old, in my experience, its reading difficulty level shoots through the roof. But, I managed to get the bulk of the reading and note-taking done in about 3 hours. Tonight, I had a much longer, but much easier, chunk of reading to do, now with my restored computer (and, importantly, restored internet). I’m still not done, but I’ve now been working off and on at this for… six hours. Six hours! Half as difficult, but twice as long to do. This tells me:
—suck up the hand cramps, charlemagne, and take your reading notes on paper
—home isn’t a great place to read, since there are too many distractions (namely, that damn refrigerator)
—at *least* turn the internet off if you’re going to bother doing homework
But, at the beginning of the year, or even in the middle of the semester, this reading and briefing would’ve taken me SO much longer than it is tonight. At least I’m making *some* progress. There’s still lots to go. I met up with a friend of mine who is a 3rd year at a public law school and, aside from feeling pretty good about where I chose to go to school, I walked away feeling very assured about the whole law school thing. He hasn’t exploded, he isn’t just a pile of frayed nerves, and 3rd year seems to be a pretty sweet gig, relatively speaking, so I’ve got something to look forward to. I’m not sure exactly what it was, but hearing anyone who has been through (almost) the whole process and could reassure some of my nagging worries, felt nice. Only 5 semesters to go, and if they all go as fast as the last one, I’d better not blink for fear I’ll miss them.
