Still Here,

I am still here. School has been keeping me quite occupied (for the record I loathe outlines).

In a fit of generosity my Crim law professor has decided to give us a practice exam. Perhaps the way the entire 1L summer class turned pale and started drooling at the word exam has given him a hint that the majority of us are terrified of the first test, or perhaps he is just a nice guy, I vote for both. But I have been trying to prepare for that as I would a graded exam just so I know what I have gotten myself into....told ya I was a nerd :)

Plus, I am feeling the stress of school and being a noobish 1L. In fact, I am becoming convinced every night before I fall asleep that I am going to:
A) Flunk out of law school
B) Put Hayden and I in the poor house between not working the 1L year and trying to find a job after I graduate. Pretty soon we will have to tie a "Will Look Cute for Kibble" sign around Piggy's (our shih tzu aka Radclyffe) neck and send him down the street door to door. (I jest and exaggerate here, I promise)
C) Never learn the secret that EVERYONE knows but me about succeeding in law school

In the light of day these ideas make me laugh, but for those moments between shutting your eyes and falling asleep, these are true... I'll be glad when this first test is over and I know what to expect. Type A personalities like myself hate the unknown. Or maybe I will just starting drinking a bottle of wine before bed....who knows.

Hopefully I will have some more to post soon :)

Paralegal v Law School

Criminal Law class is really bringing home the difference between my training as a paralegal, and what I am learning in law school. Today we were talking about mens rea, an issue I was familiar with but never really had to think to much about as a paralegal. Now, as a future attorney, I have to think about it a whole lot more.

As a paralegal you are trained to think about the law only so much so that it helps your attorney. You have to understand the elements of each case so you can find cases that are on point with your clients, you have to be able to draft legal documents and you have to know how to follow your attorney around and pick their head up when they forget it.

As a lawyer you have to know how to actually handle the client's case. How are you going to defend them, can they raise certain defenses, what is the other side going to do and how will you handle that, what would you do as the prosecutor? I naively walked into law school thinking oh, I got this, this is all old hat. And yes, some of it is old hat, some of it is familiar and some of it makes me feel like the legal idiot I was when I first started down this road. I am dead thankful for my paralegal background because it gave me case brief skills, introduced me to legalese and the fundamentals of the legal community. But in law school its a whole new ball game. I am challenged in every class to think in new ways, keep my emotions out of the case (I will never be able to practice in criminal law, I would be GREAT at it I think, but I don't think I could leave it at the office), and see the other sides POV, even when I think it is moronic....

..... and you know what? I LOVE EVERY EFFING SECOND OF IT, so ignore the petty bitching I may do about it from time to time.

Student Loan Forgiveness

MSN just posted an article about a Facebook group trying to push for a bill that will cancel out all student loan debt. Wow...

I don't know if I agree with that. On one hand, the Type A side of me is think "Great!!! One less thing for us to worry about!" But, on the other hand I feel like I have the education, I will (hopefully) reap the financial gains from said education, so shouldn't I pay the for the education? I borrow the max amount I am allowed. Some people think this is stupid, but to me it allows me to not work if I choose not to, and allows me to focus completely on school. My grades are great because of this and I feel that it is debt well incurred (ask me again in 10 years, lol.) Now, this doesn't mean I don't agree with the forgiveness programs for lawyers, nurses and other fields. I hope to take advantage of those programs myself and benefit from both the forgiveness of some percentage of my debt, and help some people out in the process. My sister-in-law works in a hospital as a Med Tech and instead of forgiveness, she receives X amount every month on her check to pay toward her student loans. That is great. But to totally wipe out all student debt? I don't know, you can walk into Target, blow $3000 bucks on a plasma and then want the price forgiven. You are enjoying the TV, you need to pay for the TV.

However, the article does bring up bill coming through this year. One that caps payments at 15% of your income and then forgives any portion left over after 25 years, if there is any(I also think they are lowering interest rates too, I could be mistaken). Now this is a great idea. It allows people to make payments that does not conflict with their income, especially in these times, and it forgives a portion if you still have some left. This combined with different payment options, to me, gives people a little more leeway to pay their debts. It also teaches responsible borrowing.

What do you think?

Supreme Court FTL

The Supreme Court turned down the challenge to the "Don't ask, Don't Tell" policy citing that the policy contributes to the necessary cohesion of the military.

What?

So knowing the guy standing next to you is gay will make your unit less cohesive? If this is true, and gay people are still that freaky and threatening to the other members of their unit, why not spend some time educating the phobes within the unit? Teach them that everyone is different (and that's OK), something I thought we all learned in kindergarten, and that just because your bunk buddy is gay, doesn't mean he wants to screw you.

But instead of spending sometime educating people, and forming cohesion through genuine friendship, the government instead sees fit to preserve cohesion by forcing people to live stealth, to not get married, if they are lucky enough to live in a state they can, and to pretend they basically have no life outside of their military role. I call BS.

From what I understand the military strongly is in favor of family support and ties, knowing that military personnel need it more than most people do. Too bad they feel that only state sanctioned families count.

Week 2 down

This was the first week that us Summer 1L's had both classes we are taking this semester (Crim Law was canceled last week due to the prof attending a conference) and I feel like things are going to be ok. I have to say it is taking up a lot more of my time then I thought it would. I am usually doing homework until 9pm every night and I am finding that my time isn't stretching nearly as far as it did in undergrad, where I was able to make A's with minimal effort. However, it is mostly busy work, ie. reading, briefing, making sure I have pulled the most important legal jargon out of the reading, that is taking the most time.

Whether it is a combination of some legal knowledge and interesting classes, or the fact I am ignorant as to what I am in for, I don't seem to be as worried as my class mates are. I guess finals in 6 weeks will let me know which on it is. Until then I am going to keep doing what I am doing and find time for myself and my beloved.