By the grace of God, I have successfully completed my first week of law school! After years of planning, there was a lot of anticipation, but it was an exciting time filled with lots of reading, new people and very little sleep. I’ll make another post later (at my rate, next month) about how I decided to go to law school and the absolute process that it was, but here is what I learned in just the first week.

You will have reading due the first day

This was a surprise to me. It also didn’t help that we found out our classes a week and a half before they started. That threw everyone into a Hunger Games type scenario of trying to find books for the lowest price. We weren’t going after each other, but rather the lowest priced, most conveniently located book. We pursued with such considerations in mind as:

Renting versus buying? Recommended versus required? How much highlighting in a book is too much? How much can I highlight in it if I rent? Do you have a friend I can buy it from? How did the previous owner of this book do in the class? How much is Amazon selling it for? Will I get it in time? Will the previous edition work? Do I really need the book?

Because I am not playing with law school (and it has made it clear that it is not playing with me), I just decided to rent/buy/do whatever to obtain them ASAP. I’ve noticed in this week that I really like being able to write and highlight all over the books, especially since I’m handwriting my notes and in general, I write to process life. Renting limits how much I can do that. I don’t want to take any shortcuts this first semester which is arguably the most important so I’m going for it. I actually do not have money for school. Like, real talk. I have had a blog post in my drafts since early August about how I am literally trusting in God for everything. So with the amount that I do have, I’m buying books. Which brings me to the next thing I learned:

LAW SCHOOL IS SO. EXPENSIVE.

Like, bruh, what are they even doing with all that money??? Because I know they didn’t give any to me. I didn’t want to take loans; I really, truly from the bottom of my soul did not. I waited until the last possible minute because I wanted God to come through in a specific way. In the end, loans were the only presented option and they wanted that first payment ASAP so I accepted them. My loans fortunately disbursed in time, but my reimbursement did not (I have a charge that needs to be reversed) so I am charging what feels like the GDP of a small country to my card.

Live shot of me and the school when I accepted my loans:

I am definitely still trusting God to work and move because that’s what He does. In the meantime, the amount of money you have to spend and the random things you have to spend it on is mind-blowing. Notebooks, various types of Post-It notes (when did sticky notes become so expensive???), books, supplements, food, housing, transportation, social events, my Uniball pens, highlighters, more food, academic planner, new book bag, food to put in the book bag.  I’m really surprised that my credit card company hasn’t called me like, “Hey fam, you good?” I’d probably answer with, “Nah fam, I made those charges under duress.”

Every time I learn about something new that I need to buy, I’m just like:

Law books are heavy as…

I purchased a bag from North Face — my first North Face product — and with everything in it, it is so heavy when I pick it up, but as soon as I put it on my back with both straps, it is magically light and manageable. It is truly otherworldly the way that this bag distributes the weight.

With that being said, this magnificent creation may not be able to cut it for school. I was told that students love this bag; Idk maybe they weren’t law students, because as soon as I put two casebooks in there, it’s all over. I’m not even coming at the bag, because it’s quite spacious and has sooo much storage. It’s just that one of my other conclusions is that law is extra all the time and that pertains to the book size too. I already had back pains before school to the point that I was seeing a chiropractor. I’m not going to let law school put me in a wheelchair. I may have to invest in a snazzy rolling backpack because I would rather do that then experience (more) severe back pain.

 

Espresso is not for me.

This week was exhausting. I had a lot of church/ministry activities the weekend before class started in addition to all the reading that I had to do, so I didn’t start off with the amount of sleep that I wanted. As such, on day 2 of class I got a large cup of espresso to help me stay up. But poor, innocent, busy me unintentionally drank it all on an empty stomach.

I pretty much felt like I was dying.

I took that espresso straight to the head. It was crazy. I was in class and felt so light headed. Come to find out you are not supposed to have coffee on an empty stomach. At all. I’m not even a coffee person like that, but after that experience, just no. It felt like the espresso was Vin Diesel and the veins leading to my brain were a quarter mile. Never again.

You make time for what you want.

People tell me this every time I say I’m too busy to be in a relationship, but I really realized it this week. The week before, I skipped a social event to go get the North Face bag that I may have to now exchange. This has been one of the longest and busiest weeks of my life, but I still decided to watch Quantico on Netflix while I ate. Because that’s what I wanted to do.

You have to know yourself. There was a lunch event hosted by a student service in my classroom right after class and I realized I could not do it; I really could not handle any more information after two classes. At the same time, I didn’t watch Quantico on Wednesday, because the reading requirements were too real. You have to prioritize and you need to take a break because:

You will learn SO much SO quickly.

Riding to school Wednesday morning, I thought to myself, “I have literally learned so much in these past two days.” You read so many cases regarding so many different categories of law, then the cold calling/Socratic method makes you parse language in such a precise way that when you finally come out of what is probably a very important rabbit hole, you’re just like:

As a result, I can already feel myself thinking about occurrences more deeply. Don’t be deceived by the brevity of this section; I have literally learned so much. If this is after only one week, I am amazed at what I will be at the end of three years.

Law school is fun!

This week has just been me looking at God like, “Okay Lord, I see You.” I’m here on faith that this is where God called me. I left my job and everything to come do this. Every few hours, I realized, “Oh shoot, I’m in law school. Oh shoot, I’m going to be a lawyer after this.” After many years contemplating and working on this on and off, I can’t believe that I’m actually in law school and when I do, I internally feel like:

Part of what took me so long was determining if I would even like this line of work, but this one week of class has shown me once more that this is what I like to do. I know I’m going to have that day where I check to see if my old place is still hiring, but so far I am pleasantly surprised. I can do this. I am excited to do this. And I have great people to do it with.

People are great.

Your classmates are fascinating, accomplished, passionate and kind people. At least mine are. During my various orientations, we were told multiple times that our classmates are our colleagues and they are one of our greatest resources. I am really enjoying the people that I have gotten to meet. I look forward to learning with them and getting to know them more. Community has developed much quicker than I expected it to, which is wonderful because that was a very important thing to me when selecting a school and this is the one that I was most concerned about. It had great programs and qualities that I could not ignore so I took a chance on the community front and by the grace of God, it has worked out. Time will tell, but I may have found my people.

Continuously ask Jesus to go before me, because I don’t know where I’m going.

Socrates, the thinker for which law school’s cold calling method is named, once said, “All I know is that I know nothing.” For the Christian especially, few concepts are truer. I know that I need to keep God before me because I’m here for Him, with Him, and I am nothing apart for Him. Anything I’ve accomplished in this life up until this point and anything that I achieve after is all God. One of my favorite verses over the summer became:

“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” —Proverbs 4:7

That comes from constantly seeking God by praying and spending time in His Word. The time that I spend doing that is something that I am desperate not to give up no matter how busy I get. Like Tasha Cobbs-Leonard said in the song For Your Glory, “If You’re not there, I don’t want to be there.”

I have an idea of what I’d like to study and I’ll pursue that, but I’m also the same person who should technically be in medical school right now so I am completely open to God’s will. I have so many interests and the law intersects with just about everything so there are several viable possibilities. I am trusting God to direct me. I believe in His plan and why He has me here.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” —Proverbs 3:5-6

 

---

Hopefully, you can tell that this has been a fun, challenging and just really exciting week. I am grateful that we started before Labor Day because I need this long weekend to get my life together. Week one of many is complete. This is a completely new path for me, and I am so excited to see where it leads.