Screaming Bean - Everyone loves a Bean!

About Me

name: Beanie
age: 35
email: bbbeans@yahoo.com

AT THE MOMENT

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Screaming Bean

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

Yesterday was the first that I actually felt like second year was done. I felt like I had possibilities that I didn't have before. I went to the library and took out real live fiction books. I picked up around the house not in a vain attempt to procrastinate. And so I now feel compelled to write the 2L wrapup that I promised earlier. Here goes:

2L both went the way I expected and in a way it didn't. The old saw of "the second year they work you to death" definitely holds. However, that line comes with the caveat that you bring that work on yourself. If you want control of your destiny you take every thing that comes your way and try desperately to juggle it all. I went the moot court route instead of journaldom and as a result my experience varied from my friends. You take courses that you hope serve you well in the future...but can be damn hard. The fall semester had me looking at Admin Law, Privacy Law, Labor Law, &c. six courses in total. At one point I was told I took too many by administration. Nothing like lighting a fire under me by telling me you shouldn't do something. It in fact was symbolic of the 2L experience, do what feels right...damn the consequences. And the consequences for once weren't bad. It was the best semester I've had. I tried a couple interschool competitions, and failed miserably at both, which actually became a running gag for me the spring semester. Come, join Beanie in the competition, you're guaranteed to get into the next round. The spring came and went with another failed competition and the bombshell that the adminstration is tightening the screws on the bottom feeders, without a GPA of 2.5 you won't be doing jack squat next year. No competitions, no journals, no nothing. It'll be a fun atmosphere come fall, I can feel it.

The second part of the equation is that the second year is supposed to be better than the first. This too comes with caveats. If you became cynical about the experience in the first year, that will probably hold for the second. You see how it works, and for the good or the bad it effects how you deal with everything...course selection, dealings with classmates, your homework, your papers. You now try to game the system. Of course there are some darlings out there who found the first year a fabulous experience and go blissfully through the next two years without a care because they unknowingly fit the superstar role from the get go. This can be one of two types of people. One, the uber-annoying gunner type who eats the professor's words for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and are satiated, or two, the person at the top of your class who seems aloof and on a different level than the rest of us mere humans. They don't have to prove themselves because they've got the concepts down to a science and can make gold from straw. You know who these people are.

At this stage of the game I see the light at the end of the tunnel...and I hope to hell it isn't a train. I want the poofy hat, I want the doctoral robes and I will do anything to get to the end. My place on campus and in the minds of my fellow students is secure and there is little I can do at this point to change that. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I'll pick my classes, do my reading, ingratiate myself to the professors I don't already know and hope for the best. That's all you can hope for. Am I regretting my choice to go to law school now? Nope. I can't see myself anywhere else. Maybe this is myopic to the point of blindness, but really...it's for the best. I just know it is.

handed down by Beanie at 9:16 AM || |