Law School

I've been pretty silent on the blog since we left Provo for Champaign. Stephanie says several people have asked how school's going and insists that she can't (and shouldn't have to) answer that for me. As usual, she's right.

On the whole, law school is fun. There's a lot to learn and most of it is completely new material, so it keeps me on my toes. I'm taking classes in legal research and writing, contracts, the law of property, and criminal law. That makes for quite a bit of reading every day, and plenty of interesting discussion. It's especially interesting how the law could possibly be applied to the same scenario in so many different ways. Often, there isn't a clear-cut decision that seems to be both correct and just. I guess that's why you need professional lawyers; if only one side of a dispute ever had a pretty good argument, it wouldn't be worth hiring a professional arguer to look up all the law that might apply to your situation and try to craft the best argument for you. It's been really interesting to see how difficult it is to draft a law that will adequately address every possible scenario that it might be called on to cover. I don't know how legislators do as well as they do.

One big change as I moved from other schooling to law school is that in law school the grade in each of my classes is determined by one single exam at the end of the semester. The exams for all the students taking the class are compared against each other and graded on a curve. If you do better than your classmates on the exam, you do well in the class. If you do worse than your classmates on the exam, you don't do so well in the class. That makes preparing for the exam throughout the semester pretty important. The great difficulty is that no one really knows how to prepare for the exam. After the first semester we'll all have a better idea, but for now, we'll stumble along and try what we think will work best for us. At least we're all in the dark together.

One other big change is that in law school, most of my classmates are significantly smarter than I am. I've had some very bright people in my previous classes, but it's a new thing to walk in and see everyone sitting there and know that a lot of them will be able to answer the professor's questions better, faster, and more thoroughly than I can. Since grades are calculated simply by comparing all the exams of all the people in the class, I'm pretty sure that even if I work really hard I won't get all As. Only ten percent of the students can be in the top ten percent of the class and, even though all the students were near the top in their respective undergrad institutions, ten percent of us will be in the bottom ten percent of the class. While I certainly intend to stay nearer the top than the bottom, I know I won't be setting the pace.

Happily, I knew that would be the case when I signed up for this, and I don't mind. I'm having more fun than most of my classmates. One point in my favor is that I have a beautiful wife and an adorable baby girl at home. Some people might think that having to spend time with a family is a disadvantage. Those folks probably don't realize that when I go home I have more exciting things to do than study or go out and drink. I can put my books away and play with Eliza. I get a hug and kiss from Steph without ever having to wonder if that cute girl in Property will go out with me, and how I should ask her, and what will happen to our relationship after that. Indeed, I've got the best of life to enjoy when studying gets tiresome. The nice thing is that, in the end, my classmates and I will all somehow find jobs, even though the vast majority of us aren't in the top ten percent.

The second point in my favor is that I don't drink. Many of my classmates not only have to find the time and money to induce goofy behavior and huge headaches several times a week, they also have to deal with the photos of that behavior and the remnants of those headaches in the morning. Since you get better at drinking as you go (or so I'm told) it takes progressively more time and more money to get the same awful headache, so by simply not starting, I save myself from all sorts on inconveniences. One good example is a Saturday afternoon softball game with the law school league a few weeks ago. Most people had to play though squinting eyes behind dark sunglasses. I don't even have a pair of sunglasses. When you're on a budget and you've got studying to do, it's a great thing to be a teetotaler. I've heard it's easier on your liver too.

In short, and it's time to be short because this student has to be up to study tomorrow morning, law school is fun. It's a lot of work. A lot. But not so much that I haven't been able to do other fun things in the last two months. I'm the Assistant Scoutmaster in the local church troop, I've been able to help a few people out with construction, destruction, and computer projects on weekends, and I've worked with Steph to find and buy a house, furnish it, and unpack the hundreds or boxes of stuff that we've somehow acquired into it. Actually Steph has done most of the unpacking. She does that while I'm at school.