As the first semester of law school comes to a close...

I thought I'd explain a little of what law school is like. Before coming everyone told us law school horror stories, which so far we've found to be somewhat over exaggerated. From what my husband tells me the material isn't all the difficult to grasp it's more the overwhelming amount of material that needs to be internalized that makes it difficult. Also, being motivated to keep up on the work- especially with it often being dry and dull- has been a struggle and there are no breaks or days off from studying. David has to remain disciplined day in and day out other wise he would get behind. Then when you add the stress of having your entire grade depend on one test at the end of the semester- where you're competing with the other students for your grade- it creates a very tense learning environment. 

He realized this semester that typical Hollywood high school dramas aren't actually about 16 year olds, but are really about law students. There are the cool single guys who every Monday morning brag of how drunk they got the previous weekend. There's the single girls who do everything together including flirting with the cool single guys. Then there's the tobacco spitting, southern drawl hicks and the die-hard-republican-political-junkies who the more they talk the less they actually say. There's the ethnics brought in on scholarship to add diversity and the aged students who have to prove they're still at the top of their game. There's the do-gooders who throw themselves into every cause from gay rights and abortion to saving the marbled murrelet from extinction on the pacific coast. And lastly there's the students who don't fit anywhere, but if they prove to be smart- after scores come in from their finals- they will be instantly swarmed by the law school leeches who suck tips and insights from everyone around them in attempts to weasel their way to the top of the class. So, where does David fit within all these stereotypes? Well, he's too much of a moderate to be lumped with the do-gooders or the die-hards and he's not single or ethnic or old or even American. Perhaps, he's a bit of a lone ranger when it comes to most cliches. He doesn't enjoy studying in groups either. He can get more done in 10 minutes of focused personal study then in two hours of chaotic group study, which is typical of most group work I'd say. An effective study partner, he's learning, is like finding a wife; there's been a lot of dating, but nothing worth writing home about. 

A typical day for him involves waking up between 7:30-8:30am, eating breakfast, watch the news/weather, study/class, lunch at 12pm, study/class until 6pm, eat dinner, study until 8-10pm depending on amount of homework, then go to the gym, do yoga, watch a movie, work on his watercolor landscapes or read some random existential piece of literature, bedtime 12pm. He does this Monday through Saturday. Friday or Saturday he'll usually finish a couple hours early to go out on a date. Sundays we wake up at 7, plan our Sunday school lesson, church at 9am-12pm, lunch at 1pm, call/skype family 2pm-4pm, visiting teaching or home teaching 4pm-6pm, stake marriage enrichment class biweekly 6:30-8:30, 9-12pm free time. 

During the first half of the semester David studied at school, but his study carrel was in a dark windowless basement and he wasted so much time getting caught in distracting conversation. After moving home to study I see him a lot more making me very happy. He's learned quality study is better than quantity and that knowing when to take a break is as essential as completing the work.