A 2L’s Take on Lessons Learned & Lessons Still Learning

So, if you’ve made it here, you’re likely one of four people: a 1L hoping to discover the secret to surviving your first semester as a “reasonably prudent person under the same or similar circumstances” (if you’re there yet in Torts, you know, you know); a 2L like me, whose arms are sore from carrying around our Constitutional Law textbook; or a 3L or 4L who, upon hearing “bar prep,” is already trying to change the subject. Either way, you’ve made it this far, and I promise this reading doesn’t require your Bluebook.

My name is Rose Edenfield, and I have the pleasure of writing for The Blackacre Times this year. I wanted my first post to start by saying: welcome back (or welcome to) law school! Regardless of what year you’re in, it seems like we’re all faced with the same balancing act as the school year kicks off: new classes, plenty of reading, applying for or starting new jobs and externships, spending time in clinics and extracurricular organizations, and, somewhere in all of that, maintaining a social life outside of this building.

Needless to say, we all have our own ways of coping with the ever-full agenda of a law-school semester. I, as a teacher in my past life, love to color-code my calendar, classes, and even my highlighters when briefing different parts of cases. But I know plenty of people who find their routines in their Outlook calendars, the Reminders app on their phones, or even those last-minute texts from their group chat.

Speaking of study groups, if you don’t feel like you have one yet—or haven’t even thought about the idea of letting new people into your life—you’re not alone.

When I started law school last year, I spent most of my time on the 6th floor (shout-out, but quietly) reading, briefing, and taking notes by myself. I turned down plenty of opportunities to spend time with friends outside of school because I thought I needed to review my case notes for the fifth time that week. When finals came around in December, I didn’t huddle up with a group of friends and spend late nights over coffee reviewing our outlines until 2 a.m. I thought I did my best work on my own. After all, wasn’t I the only one taking my exam?

Boy, was I wrong.

When grades came out in January, I remember thinking, “Wow. Was all of the time and effort I sacrificed last semester all for nothing?” In hindsight, I know it wasn’t. My grades were fine, I got a great job for the summer, and life went on! But in that moment, I didn’t know how I would ever recover. Over the next few days, I came to realize that I needed to adopt a different perspective for the semester.

I was still—and still am—an avid 6th-floor resident, but I started spending lunch with my friends in our favorite study room talking about things that had absolutely nothing to do with school. Some days, I went home immediately after class and camped out on my couch for hours watching TV. I took time on the weekends to focus on the relationships I had outside of school and reminded myself who I was apart from being a student or colleague.

When finals season came around, I was lucky enough to spend countless hours with my study group re-teaching concepts to each other, reading our class notes while devouring countless snacks, and peer-reviewing each others responses to practice questions. I felt like I had genuine moral support, and the weight of the world no longer felt like it was sitting entirely on my shoulders.

When I got my grades back, I saw improvement. More importantly, I realized that while changing my approach to exam preparation helped (more to come in later posts!), I couldn’t have done it without the people I had around me at the end of 1L.

All of this to say: it is totally okay—and necessary—to spend time by yourself and focus on your goals. But don’t forget to look up from your laptop every once in a while and realize that you have an entire community around you that wants to help you reach them.

Maybe that’s one of the biggest lessons I’m carrying with me into 2L: you don’t have to figure it all out on your own. And if you’re starting law school for the first, second, third, or fourth time this year, neither do you.