On Staying Cool

The title of this post refers to the advice we received in our Property class today to "stay cool" for the upcoming exam. Our professor told us to look at the example of Justice Alito during his confirmation hearings-his wife sobbed, but he didn't flinch. By referring to us, I'm not sure if he meant Alito or his wife, given the strain we are all under right now.

Today was our last day of class for the first year of law school. It is difficult to look at it with a sense of context right now, because I am right in the thick of studying for my final exams, which begin Monday. But whether or not we realize it, what we have done so far, just getting through the first year of law school, is a huge accomplishment. It has been a long 9 months since I have moved to Columbus, and it has not been an easy experience by any stretch. But I have made it and survived, and have proved to myself that I will not be retreating up I-71 anytime soon.

That being said, there are lessons I have learned from this past year. There are some things I have done right, but other areas where I could use some improvement. The rest of this week, in a three-part series of blog posts, I will talk about what I need to do to stick with my goals for 2006 in three key areas: spiritual, professional, and social. Tonight, I will discuss my professional goals and how I am working towards those goals for this year, and how I can improve.

My professional goals, generally speaking, for 2006 have been to do my best with respect to law school grades, line up strong plans for summer, become more active in politics and networking, use my time productively, and create and maintain a blog, as a resource for fellow Christian law students (and general interest for all readers).

Generally speaking, this is the most successful of the three areas in which I set goals for this year. I am proud to say that one of my goals for the year has already been accomplished-you are reading it right now. I will be participating in the Blackstone Legal Fellowship this summer, so I definitely accomplished what I wanted there. I have had some real and definite successes so far in 2006.

However, there are areas where I need to improve for the remaining 7 months of the year:

1) Grades: my law school grades have been solid so far, but to improve and do even better, in the fall I need to focus on spreading out my workload through the semester. The mistake I made during the first year was to concentrate most, or all, of my outlining during the last couple weeks of class. This has created a very stressful situation, as I am rushing to finish my course outlines before the exam in order to preserve a meaningful amount (2-3 days) of study time before each test. In the fall, I resolve to do a better job of having a quota of outlining to complete every 2-3 weeks. This will make the end of the semester (Appellate Advocacy included) much less stressful.

This, along with other changes I plan to make, will help make me a more effective law student, which ultimately has a spiritual component as well, insofar as what I do as a law student and lawyer reflects my love of the Lord and my willingness to serve Him through my labor.

2) Networking: in general, I plan to attend as many Mentoring Program and other networking and Republican Party events as my schedule will allow. Not much to say here.

3) Time management: probably the most critical skill I need to develop in my life, short of prayer and spiritual disciplines. When I get back from my internship this summer, I will need to take inventory of all my time commitments, and make a comprehensive schedule covering everything from exercising at RPAC to time to cook dinner to reading for Business Associations (one of our second-year courses). I will more fully develop this idea later. This topic is closely related to grades, since I need to do better at managing my workload throughout the semester.