My Last First Week of School

Hello, friends! Please excuse the little break I took from blogging over the past few days. I intended to write a post about my first day of school, but real life took over. I regret nothing. :)

Since we had Monday off for MLK Day, my first day of school wasn't until Tuesday. Lucky for me, Monday was also... my 26th birthday! I feel no different than I did at age 25, though I definitely think I've grown a lot emotionally and mentally. J took the best care of me all day - we relaxed, slept in (even though my original plan was to wake up early and go to the gym - you win some, you lose some), had some breakfast, ordered nachos from our fav Mexican restaurant in town (Hermanos "Betty and Shirl's" nachos are incredible), and ate them while we watched movies all day! It was super relaxing and what I really needed before starting my last semester of law school!

Can we take a second and recognize that I will be an actual lawyer in May?! This is insane to me. My professors keep telling us that we're totally ready, and it's not like I don't have confidence in myself. I've done well in school and gotten great feedback at all my jobs... But it feels like law school simultaneously went by so fast and also lasted forever, haha. It's so strange to think I'll be a practicing attorney in four months. What?!

But back on topic... My first week back was actually really great! I think it's going to be a really practical, fun semester. I'm only taking three classes, but I'm working for credit at a medical malpractice law firm in Manchester, the city over from Concord. 

• I work at the firm full time on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is nice because I have full days to get stuff done instead of starting and stopping projects on half days. Plus, the two attorneys I work for are actual angels, and I love the staff! Everyone has made me feel so welcome. While I worked at a "Med Mal" firm before law school, I wasn't actually doing any legal work (technically), so this is really my first experience doing it. So far, I'm still madly in love with employment law, but I like doing this work a lot more than I expected to!

• On Mondays and Wednesdays, I have a class called "Federal Courts," which I thought was more about how to practice in the federal court system, but it turns out is also like Con Law on steroids. I was really worried that I couldn't keep up since I am not into the "philosophy" of law, but today's make-up class was SO fabulous and interesting, and I think I'm really going to love this class if I work really hard to keep up! :)

• On Monday nights, I'm taking "Legal Practice Management," which was a class I added right before school started. It's basically about how to start up and manage a firm - not something I necessarily would have chosen for myself in a regular semester, but it worked really well with my schedule and I thought it would be cool to learn more practical skills before I jump out into the job market. It turns out this class is fabulous - it's a great group of only fifteen people, and we're doing a lot of simulated, interactive learning, which is totally my forte!

• Lastly, I'm taking my final course in the Daniel Webster Scholar program! It's kind of a catch-all, making sure that we're really client-focused and -ready by the time we graduate in May. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I think it will be kind of like Federal Courts - if I really apply myself, I think the class is going to be a lot of fun and very useful! I'm excited to hone my client interviewing skills over the next few weeks.

That's basically been my whole week! Totally great, especially for law school. I've still been working out pretty regularly, though I admittedly haven't gone for a few days in a row. The apartment's a mess, which I'm hopefully getting to this weekend while I have some down time. Everything's going well in my world, if not a little chaotic. :)