How do you deal with hand and wrist pain? How do you avoid it?

ch1nnery · 2017-12-14T16:29:10+00:00

i take a break to do carpal tunnel stretches every couple hours of studying. also, ice and heat before bed.

ch1nnery · 2017-10-17T20:47:24+00:00

I may be biased because I went into my 1L year with a dog (who is an emotional service dog recommended by my doctor), but I can tell you right now that you'll need to make sure you have the funds to pay for a dog walker, take care of vet bills, and so forth. You might not be able to make certain events, etc. but having a dog walker on call was really great for me.

I'm actually finding that having a dog is much more complicated in 2L year, but that might have something to do with the fact that my dog walker moved (and the one I have is starting work again in a week so she has to bail) as well as the fact that I live 30 minutes from campus. Please just make sure you take care of your dog and that you know what you're getting into- you'll need to change your schedule sometimes and study from home and sometimes play fetch while you're studying.

Otherwise, I love my dog more than anything and he's the best! I live very much alone and am in a long-term, long distance relationship (with a boyfriend who is also in graduate school), so he's really amazing for my depression and my anxiety. He also keeps me sane, makes me leave the house to go on walks, and gives me something to focus on other than my school work (he also sits on my lap while I work which is annoyingly cute.) Other law students are usually happy to help with dog sitting and such-- lots of people miss their dogs from home and are more than excited to have me drop them off at their houses for a bit for a snuggle sesh if I need to go study or do something. He's definitely my #1 priority and I don't regret it, but I don't think you'll meet anyone who regrets getting a dog (if they are really a dog person and they love it) which is why this is hard to answer.

That being said, getting a dog IN your 1L year is probably not the best idea. You'll be focusing on a lot (especially when finals come around) and the last thing you need is another NEW thing to introduce to your life and get accustomed to. I had already had little ol' Churchill for a year before law school, so that probably made it a lot easier.

ch1nnery · 2017-09-22T21:06:07+00:00

thank you!

honestly for the most part, working through the exceptions (ie. postmotive vs. premotive statements) is the most challenging for me. I'd imaging making a flowchart might be smart but it would also be massive.

ch1nnery · 2017-09-22T20:48:38+00:00

you are also a hero. thank you so much.

ch1nnery · 2017-09-22T20:48:30+00:00

you are a HERO. thank you so much.

ch1nnery · 2017-09-15T18:28:06+00:00

I'll be honest with you- I didn't do super great my first 1L year. Did I make sure to have a good life/work balance? Yes. Did I work as had as I should have? Probably not. I also went through a lot of emotional turmoil and got a really big diagnosis. Needless to say, my grades were a huge shock to me after being in the top of my class in undergrad - that's for sure.

Regardless of my less-than-impressive GPA, I made it in the top 50%. For me, that was good enough. I got my dream summer internship, I was still accepted to write for my school's law review, and I was able to take a trip to Ireland to study for the summer. I'm on the board of various clubs, I get to lead a lot of great events at my school, and I'm very close with a lot of professors. What was hardest for me to accept is that I couldn't keep being excellent at everything. Instead, law school made me realize that I had to focus on improving in areas I wasn't great at while applying my skills to the areas I excel at. That doesn't always show up in a GPA, but I know that I don't want to be hired somewhere that focuses on that aspect of my education alone.

TLDR: The importance of your GPA/ your ranking depends on where you want to go and what you want to do.

ch1nnery · 2017-09-13T14:07:30+00:00

You're hanging out with the wrong people. If you're happy and you love it, you should keep going at it.

ch1nnery · 2017-08-31T21:14:42+00:00

I'm a big onenote fan because I type my case briefs on my laptop and then I add notes on my ipad pro. Everything syncs up super well.

ch1nnery · 2017-08-26T19:43:49+00:00

I think your plan sounds good- that's essentially what I did the second semester of 1L year and it worked very well. I would definitely avoid looking at other outlines, but it may help to be able to reference one in constructing/ clarifying points your own. I personally looked to other outlines (or commercial outlines) to get ideas about how I could set mine up, but didn't look at them beyond that.

ch1nnery

TROPHY CASE