Nerves

In just a week and a half, I start law school orientation. I am off-the-wall excited! This is a new chapter in my life and I'm eager to get started. However, there are a few things that I am very nervous about. 


The Workload: The syllabus for my Legal Writing and Research class has been posted and soon the rest of the syllabus will be posted and first day assignments out. Looking at my syllabus from just one class, I have my work cut out for me. The amount of reading alone for this class is a lot, and this is my writing class. I expect all of the others will have a lot more reading. To top it off, there are writing assignments requiring a lot of research. I'm not too concerned about writing because I am a fast writer. However, I'm pretty slow reader, and I'll be reading things often written in legalese. It will be like learning a new language for the first semester. I'm finally starting to see that I literally will be spending almost all my time studying.


The Socratic Method: This is the part of law school that scares me the most. Many teachers in law school use the Socratic Method, and I've already been told that my Torts professor can be pretty aggressive with it. A teacher using the Socratic Method, instead of lecturing, asks a series of questions about the case at hand. Most of the time, students are called on randomly. The teacher will then push the point to make force the student to defend a position. There is rarely one right answer and sometimes no clear answer at all. The pressure is on to be able to clearly articulate a well-thought-out argument on demand. While I think that I will get used to this system and be able to manage, for now I'm super nervous to be called on in class.


Food: I'm starting to get the hang of my new diet, but it is about to be put to the test in a whole new way. I'll be on campus pretty much all day every day. My meals will have to be planned everyday to a tee. I likely will need to go grocery shopping each week. This will certainly be a challenge with everything else I have to get done. 


Overall, I'm exciting. This is a new challenge and I'm ready to rise to the occasion. I am excited for a new system of learning and a change from undergraduate studies. I have a 2-3 page essay to write on why I'm attending law school for my legal writing class. Next week, I plan on using this blog to write out my thoughts so that I can modify it for that essay. This weekend I'm off to my branch camp-out for some last minute summer fun.


Healthy food discovery: My new favorite hummus: http://www.choosingraw.com/sweet-potato-hummus/. I love sweet potatoes and I love this recipe!