A Week in My Life as a 2L

 

2L looks SO different from 1L, it's insane. My uncle, who is a lawyer, gave me some advice before I went to law school: they scare you to death in 1L, they work you to death in 2L, and they bore you to death in 3L. I was definitely scared to death in 1L, and, of course, I have been worked to death thus far during 2L. Here's to hoping that 3L is as boring as they promise. 

I wanted to let you know what a week in my life as a 2L in law school looks like. This week was pretty odd because I had a lot more meetings than I usually would, but other than that, this is a pretty typical week for me. 

Monday, January 18

I had an easier start to my week because I had Monday off. Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, so there were no classes. However, I still had plenty of work to do, so I got up early to go for a quick walk around campus before starting my day. 

After a shower, some homemade breakfast quesadillas, and two cups of coffee, I go to work. I had a meeting at 10:00 AM, so I sat down at my desk to read a some Criminal Procedure for class tomorrow before opening up Zoom. After that meeting, I got back to work on that Criminal Procedure assignment. Any sort of Constitutional Law case, like a Criminal Procedure case, takes me a bit longer to read and take notes on, so by the time my next meeting rolled around at 12:30, I had to take a break from the same reading assignment. 

Once my second (and last!) meeting was done, I got back to reading Criminal Procedure, and once I was done with that, I moved onto my Legal Profession reading. This one didn't take me as long (it's such a relief to see that I don't have to read a concurrence or a dissent), so once I finished that reading, I made some dinner. I took a break from sitting at my desk while I ate my pasta and garlic bread, and once I was done eating, I decided to work ahead on some citations for law review. 

It's the end of the day now, so I will be relaxing in my bedroom for the rest of the night reading for fun (unheard of in law school). 

Tuesday, January 19

Tuesdays are my longest days of the week, especially this first Tuesday of my semester. I woke up early to go to the gym to work out, and after a shower, I ate another breakfast quesadilla (my go-to lately), caffeinated, and sat down for my Zoom Criminal Procedure class. 

I had a little bit of time between Criminal Procedure and my next class, Advanced Legal Research, so I worked through a few citations for law review until it was time to make lunch and get ready for my second Zoom class. Right after Advanced Legal Research I have to go to Legal Profession, so I switched from one Zoom room to another and got set up for that class. 

I have a two-hour break between the end of Legal Profession and the start of my last class of the day, Evidence Practicum. I made a quick dinner and lazed around for a little bit to give my eyes a break from my computer screen. Evidence Practicum is a late class, so I was pretty tired by the time it ended. I think it's the class I'm most excited for this semester, I really enjoy doing simulations and working with evidentiary rules. 

Wednesday, January 20

Happy Inauguration Day! 

I started off my day with my usual trip to the gym, got home and took a shower, and then my roommate and I ordered some coffee while waiting for the inauguration to start. Of course, we ordered at the wrong Starbucks and had to drive to go pick up our coffee. Once we got back, we settled in to watch the inauguration. 

Right after the inauguration, I had my first meeting of the day. I don't usually have this many meetings during the week, but I am planning on applying for a position on the law review's editorial board for the next volume and anybody interested in applying has to meet with each person who has a position you're interested in. 

After that meeting, I began reading for Criminal Procedure. Once again, it took me a while because the cases are pretty long, but I did also stop to make some lunch at one point. Once I finished reading for Criminal Procedure, I read for Legal Profession. It wasn't the most exciting day, but hey, they can't all be.

Thursday, January 21

Last day of classes for the week! Thursday is my on-campus day with my hybrid classes, which I really like because it's nice to be in the law building again. I never thought I'd miss that place, but I suppose being quarantined in an apartment makes you do crazy things. 

As per usual, I hit the gym, although I didn't do my full workout because the gym opens at 7:00 AM and Criminal Procedure is at 9:00 AM and I don't like to rush getting ready. After a quick shower, I put some makeup on the top half of my face (thank goodness for masks shortening my morning routine), and got dressed. I made a quick breakfast, made a coffee, and headed to campus. I don't live too far from the law building so I left with fifteen minutes to spare and made it to class on time. 

I ran home for lunch and to relax a little bit before heading back to campus for my afternoon classes. Even though Advanced Legal Research is a fully online class, I reserved a study room in the law building because I only have fifteen minutes between Advanced Legal Research and Legal Profession. Like I said above, I don't like to rush and sprinting to campus after exiting out of a Zoom call doesn't sound appealing to me. 

Once I got home, I made some dinner and got to work on some more citations for law review. I finished my first round of editing the citations, so now I'm taking a break before I get back to work on my second round of edits. 

Friday, January 22

TGIF! This first full week of school really took it out of me--and I know I'm not the only one. As I mentioned above, I don't have any classes on Fridays, but I did have two meetings today. Before that though, I went to the gym to go for a run and came home. I sent out a few emails and prepped for my meetings. I ran the first one, so it was just a lot of me taking meeting notes while people updated me on their tasks, and then my next meeting was another one for law review. Today I spoke with the Editor-in-Chief about the logistics of the application and interviewing process for the next editorial board. 

I ended up having a pretty relaxed Friday night that involved face masks, at-home manis and pedis, and watching the movie Promising Young Woman. 

xoxo,

Rachel