# 5: The Right Foot

I officially find myself tucked back, safe and snug in Toronto. Which I was really looking forward to, until I realized how utterly unprepared I was, mind and body, to return to the immense workload and intense pressure of law school. I'm jetlagged - a mere two hours behind, but what a difference that makes when you aspire to wake up at 6:30 - and both my mind and body are still staunchly in hibernation mode. I came home after class yesterday, utterly at a loss as to what I should do: I had been away long enough to forget the absolute necessity of getting myself to the library, lest I migrate my studying from my desk to my bed, and from there from consciousness to subunconsciousness.

So my plan of attack is as follows:

Take it one step at a time, and start your day on the right foot

"Thanks for that illuminating platitude," I'm sure you're thinking. It's really just a two-fold mindset. I think that, first, it's important to set fair expectations for yourself. For me, this means not beating myself about the fact that I haven't made it to my morning gym dates. My first step is to get my sleeping schedule adjusted, and forcing myself to run a day on 5 hours of sleep just does not strike me as the most effective or pleasant way to accomplish that. I could set myself an ambitious and unrealistic To Do list, and then just feel ashamed when it doesn't get completed, or I can put down some priorities, and do them well.

The second part of this mantra, is simply to make sure that I start my day with choices that give me positive energy throughout the day. Just because I'm stressed about being back at school does not mean that I should roll out of bed, throw on whatever, and drag myself to the library. I think a key to my personal sanity is my morning routine. When I start my day by either going to the gym or having a healthy breakfast, I just feel better prepared for the rest of my day. Making those first few choices to take care of yourself just makes you feel empowered to take on the day. Today, for me that means...

More on that monstrosity in future.

So start your day right, and realize your own initial limitations.

#4 - Shake It Off, or, Taking up the Mantel

My lovely friend Kathy had a blog, once upon a time. I feel like we are the generation of people who will have "had blogs." Because we are, if HBO's Girls has taught me anything, the generation of self-indulgent prima donnas who want to talk about our feelings and our emotions and try to leave behind a relic of our humanity. Or something like that, right? And then we are all going to get hit in the face with the concrete brick of reality, with real life deadlines and commutes and relationships and commitments. And thus, we abandon our navel-gazing revelry and get to work. Well don't you fret - while I completely understand my friends' abandoning their blogs for real life - I am too big a narcissist and too poor at prioritizing to give up blogging for anything less than being, meh, just too lazy. But as long as there is work to do and a library for me to sit in fruitlessly, there will be blog posts.

The point that I have been dancing around is that I am going to take up the mantel of one of Kathy's last, abbreviated, blog projects. She found a moral imperative to provide law students with tips for surviving law school. She only got three tips in, which should probably leave me with a sense of foreboding, but I find myself wanting to pick up where she left off. Because law school is overwhelming, and taking a step back to re-evaluated and decide what is important and what paths need to be taken strikes me as helpful for me and hopefully illuminating for others.

I do this, however, realizing that I begin this undertaking with the optimistic view that I will survive law school, and the humility that I almost certainly don't have any actual answers. I am no pro at law school. But I am prone to navel gazing [see above] and so occasionally am given a moment of clarity where things that are self evident become so again, after being crush by my Torts textbook or my Legal Process deadline.

Shake it Off

As you will hear, law school can be cut throat. Take every smarty pants who did well in school who you ever knew, put them together in one class, and tell them that an A (and therefor a prestigious 1st year internship that could very well lay the groundwork for their entire career) is entirely contingent not on how well they know the subject matter, or how hard they've studied or even how well they do on their exams - that A is entirely contingent on you doing better than your fellow smarty pants.

I'm not Jewish, but let me just say; Oy.

My experience has thus far not been the horror story that Selma Blair painted for me in Legally Blonde (my personal quintessential law school film). A lot of people in my classes are really supportive and helpful, and virtually no one goes out of their way to make sure their classmates don't understand a concept. 

But there will be comments. "Oh, well if that works for you, then I guess go ahead." "Do you have all your summaries done yet? Because I do, but I'm worried they aren't thorough enough." Just the other day, after trying to assure a friend of mine that she had time to eat lunch, I was on the receiving end of "I'm behind. You're really behind, but that doesn't mean I'm not behind."

Excusemewhat? I'm sure I looked like I had been slapped. It hurt. It was mean. But I have the confidence that it wasn't intended to hurt or come across as mean. It almost certainly came from a place of insecurity and stress that had exactly nothing to do with me.

And that's when and why you need to shake it off. You can spend all day freaking out about whether or not you're behind, or you can just go ahead make sure it's not true. Mind games - and whether mind games are actually being played, or we all just read way too much into other people's actions, is an assumption I would certainly contest - are not going to help you.

what is more likely to help you is this picture of a Puli jumping. Or "shaking it off," if you will.

We all (hopefully) are going to go be lawyers, and that probably means some of us will work with each other. So don't be a douche. But if some one is a douche, don't vilify them. Shake it off, and realize that we're all probably a little stressed.

Law School Ladies Look Bomb

Today proved the first ideal opportunity to capture a phenomenon that I have found both surprising and awesome about law school.

Namely, the girls here are babes.

Or, to be more clear, are sartorially brilliant. So many of the girls I go to school with have distinct personal styles, and you very rarely have anyone in class roll in in yoga pants and a t-shirt (sorry girl in the front row who rolls in daily in yoga pants and a t-shirt - no jibe intended). While some may find this standard a daunting one, I have personally found it inspiring. The freedom to express myself with clothing without worrying that I may be made to feel overdressed has inspired me to be ever more creative in constructing a morning ensemble. I have been plumbing the depths of my closet with an increasingly perceptive eye for possible outfit constructions, making use out of old and new garments alike. And it's fun!

I discussed my fascination with the fashion law school studies has seemed to evoke with a couple of my girlfriends here, and the sentiment was mutually felt. We did, in fact, decide that it would be a great idea to start immortalizing some of our favourite outfits.

Today was a less formal photo shoot than certainly what I had in mind (see: trans-friendly bathroom backdrop), but the hilarious coincidence of nearly identical outfits seemed like fair grounds for a picture. Let me present to you Law School's "Who Wore it Best?" Black and Blue edition:

So, some notable differences here. Caroline opted for a Victorian-style high-necked lace top, a structured blazer and, not clearly captured, a distressed-gold flat. This amounted to a much more classic look, though her more brightly blue pants serve as an edgier element in light of these classic pieces.
My interpretation of the blue-pant-black-top-black-blazer phenomenon was much more rockabilly-cum-rock star. My pompadour bouffant, black leather booties and slouchy blazer, paired with a low cut leotard which, yes, bears my bra, made for a much less professional, and somewhat less conventional, take on the look. Less See Jane, more Wheredidugetthat, Street or otherwise.

What should this installment be called? Law School Looks? Sartorial Solicitors-in-training? Attourney Attire? I'm going to go with Vestiary Capacity for the time being. Because it's like testamentary capacity! Getit??

Sneak-Sneak-Sneak

Law School Walk of Shame: sneaking back to your apartment at 11:00pm on a school night after going shopping and having dinner (at which you actually had a glass of red wine - gasp) with lovely, charming friends when you should have been locked away doing your criminal law reading like all the other good kids.

JUST like this, but instead of Meech Munchies and Paramite Pies, shopping bags and purple lips

So, I'm in Law School

And I feel like that's an excuse for not blogging. Though, generally speaking, "excuse" is kind of a pejorative. But, in this case, maybe not. It's pretty valid that law school is a bit of an overwhelming commitment. Take, for instance, the workload I have tonight:

35 pages of Torts

450 words left on an Ethical Lawyering paper

30 pages of State & Citizen reading

2 case excerpts for Legal Process

The validity of my excuse is, however, null and void in light of the reality that while vaguely attempting these things, I also;

sauteed onions I didn't eat

napped

read while in downward facing dog

researched the history of cat mayors

had a bath

danced to the longest Avicii song I could find

I'll try not to ever leave you again over such paltry excuses...