I’m
really
enjoying
law school.
First of all, GW has done a spectacular job of creating a place that is welcoming, non-intimidating, and in which every kind of assistance is accessible. I have laughed more during orientation and my preliminary classes than I ever thought I would, and today enjoyed a thorough explanation of contract law that used as its framework (with the appropriate supporting media) the bargain in which Ariel (the Little Mermaid) trades her voice to the Sea Witch for legs.
Second, my classmates are, for the most part, extremely friendly and refreshingly well-rounded. So far, I haven’t detected much in the way of competitiveness or one-upmanship, but instead a sense of actual camaraderie in the form of “Hey, I thought this was kind of hard…are you having trouble, too, and would you want to work on it together?” Even someone as admittedly reclusive and antisocial as I am has difficulty fending off these types of advances.
Third, while they keep making an effort to warn us that study of the law raises Questions Which Have No Answers, I find that law school provides a good deal more distance from—and luxury of time to debate the answers to—these Questions than I found as a nurse, when I would encounter Questions like “This patient needs something I don’t know how to find,” or “We don’t have enough nurses to safely provide care for these patients,” or “I think the doctor is wrong and that could turn out to be pretty serious” or “Both of these women’s babies are tanking and the operating rooms are full.” Questions from which you can’t just close the book, leave the desk, and walk away, but in which you are actually confronted with no viable path of action. I went into law specifically because of these questions, not because I have answers to them but because I hope to find ways in which we can reduce the instances in which people are forced to confront them. Based on that motivation, and that experience, merely grappling with the questions—rather than attempting to solve them unqualified—seems like maybe a pretty reasonable task for now.
Fourth, the QUIET. Holy crap. I spend my entire day (except for classes, of course) in an environment that rivals a library or a church sanctuary. How can something so peaceful ever get stressful??
And really, I think the biggest part of my newfound contentment both in DC and in law school has to do with the fact that I’m finally going with the flow. I’m not swimming upstream to try to sleep during the day, I’m not fighting my body to regularly stay awake for more than 36 hours at a time, I’m not having to constantly deny the urge to not just sleep in the same bed as my husband, but to do so at the same time. Matt and I are ecstatic to have our schedules finally align well enough that we can start and end every day together. My worries about whether I would ever be free from the sleep problems that have long plagued me proved to be unfounded; for once, I am the member of our household who is most likely to be sleepy at bedtime, and most reliably up when the alarm clock goes off. It’s unbelievable. And I love it.
To be fair, though, I will lodge the complaint that my backpack, on a typical day, weighs over 30 pounds.
I’m hoping to be legally well-versed enough by the end of this semester to be able to recover damages for whatever injuries I happen to incur in the process.
PS: And in relevant legal issues: for those who are concerned, our landlords seem to have (hopefully!) concluded that pushing the cat issue with us would be a losing battle and is not worth their effort. For now, anyway.
1 comment:
I suppose composing this in Wordpad didn't afford you a "title" field.
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