Topic: Summer

Summer So Far

For me, being a 1L was like running uphill with my head down, going so hard that almost everything falls away except the continuous forward progress. The lead up to Spring semester finals was the single most intense period of uninterrupted focus and concentration I’ve experienced. Ever.

Summer has been, in a fashion that has become almost typical for me, a random assortment of mostly serendipitous events and opportunities. I prevailed upon one of my favorite professors to let me be his research assistant, I’m co-editing and writing articles for the Oregon State Bar Business Section Newsletter, and doing some work with a civil rights lawyer (and friend) in Portland. It’s been very busy, but not nearly as focussed and relentless as school.

Other friends are scattered around the globe, doing everything from working on Ninth Circuit opinions (amazing) to studying human rights in tropical locals (smart) to getting required classes out of the way early (which we will all be jealous of later). Many have taken impressive legal jobs, one thing I find really striking is just how much presumed ability we are assumed to have after one year of law school. I guess we do.

Next semester is shaping up to be significantly busier than the first year. At, least, it seems that way. I am banking on being significantly more efficient while reading and processing cases as the only foreseeable option to handling it all.

A note to any readers of this blog: I’ve been contacted by a few prospective students wanting to schedule conversations about law school. I am certainly happy to talk with anyone who would like to chat about Lewis and Clark law, tweet me @damientaylor and we’ll set it up!

19 July 2009

1 Done

Such a cliche I know, but this year has passed by so fast it’s a little stunning. I think the amount of head-down, driven and focussed, working through the hard times effort that being a 1L requires made time speed up and act like it’s on fast-forward. The thousands of pages read, the countless hours in the library, the looming deadlines and exams all merge afterward into a single, satisfying, and incredibly dense chunk of time.

It feels great to be on the other side of it. It’s a little like paddling into a big wave, one you’re not sure you’ll be able to make the drop on, undergoing a few harrowing, off-balance seconds when you just might be cast off to be tossed and churned, and making it through the bottom turn and starting to relax and enjoy yourself. We’re all still on the wave, and the possibility of wiping out is still very present, but we’ve basically got it under control.

This Summer, I’ll be doing research for a professor, and hopefully working on some civil rights litigation here in Portland. I’ll make regular posts over the Summer and into the next year of school at least. To all who made it through, congratulations. To those coming in this Fall, well, good luck, just keep at it and you’ll do fine.

I certainly feel different from when I entered school. Gone is the big hair and beard, 35 pounds have been lost to the daily bike ride, I fell in with love a new city and had my heart broken, all while learning more than I ever though possible in the span of a single school year.

15 May 2009