Knocked Out the First Day

I had Criminal Law and Torts today, my first two classes of law school. A little side note, we had assignments for the first day of class, not assignment that our prof's gave us the first day, but assignments we had to have completed when we showed up. Criminal Law with Prof Bridge had us reading about 25 cases and Torts with Prof Ryan had about 20 pages of reading. Overall it was good, Bridge likes to call four people at the start of class, have them stand up and then he directs all his questions to those four people for the duration of class. Ryan calls on someone, asks them a few questions, then will move on to someone else. Pretty cool, but it can be intimidating. I didn't get called on, which turns out is probably bad luck, first day of class and the teachers expect less and are more sympathetic. The longer I go and the more challenging it will be. Legal Writing is going to be interesting, they basically told us that if you were a good writer in college, it's going to be tough for you to unlearn what you know. Great. Weekend is here, then I'll hit a full week of class, better get reading.

SMU Orientation

Wow, twelve hours of orientation on Tuesday and six more hours on Wednesday and you'd think I had some idea about what was going on. We did get to eat quite a bit so that was nice, but it was a lot of information to soak in. One thing that was really helpful is that we have some mentors who are 2L's and have a good idea as to what we're going through. I'm pretty stoked to be starting, it's like I've been waiting forever for this day and it's finally here. Not sure if I really understand what I'm getting into, but it's exciting. The SMU campus is gorgeous, I'm going to take some pics and post them, but it's old school traditional and really nice. I've met some cool people that are in my section, seem like a good group and we're all excited to be here and anxious to see what it's like. Friday is my first day of classes, Criminal Law and Torts so I'll get the weekend to figure out what I've got myself into!

1L Fall Schedule

So after my almost being lost in the SMU database scare, it looks like everything is starting to come together. I got my class schedule for the upcoming semester (which starts in a week) and my orientation schedule. Tuesday the 18th I have all day orientation, and when I say all day, I mean all day. It kicks off at 9:00 AM and goes till 8:30 PM and includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then Wednesday I come back and get some more from 9:00 AM to 3:15 PM. Friday the 21st is the first day of classes so I get to experience my first two classes from 9 to 11, then I have to stick around till 1 PM for another orientation for Legal Writing.



Civil Procedure TuTh 2-3:15

Torts MWF 10-10:50

Property WF 9-9:50

Contracts MW 2-2:50

Criminal Law MTuTh 9-9:50

Legal Writing TuTh 10:30-11:45

So it's kind of a crazy schedule, lots of breaks so I can get some studying done in between classes. We'll see how it goes.

Close Call

You know that feeling in the pit of your stomach where it seems like something cold and wet is slowly devouring you from the inside out? I just endured a few minutes of that horrible feeling as I spoke with a couple of advisers at the registrars and admissions offices at SMU. I start school on the 18th, so two weeks from tomorrow and I still don't know my schedule. There are two schedules for first year students and we don't get to pick which one we want, they are simply assigned to us. I've been waiting and waiting and waiting FOREVER to see which one is mine, but to my disappointment, I haven't received it yet. So I decided to call the registrars office to get more info. The woman I spoke with was very nice and after telling me that most schedules have been sent, she tried to look me up. From there, the fun began; she couldn't find my name in her spreadsheet so she informed me I needed to speak with the admissions office and then transferred me over there. (This is where that sick feeling started springing to life.) So I spoke with another nice woman and after explaining to her what was going on, she took my info and put me on hold. It was probably thirty seconds, but as the fear worked its way up my stomach and into my extremities, I started imagining what I could do or would have to do if I wasn't going to start law school in two weeks. Finally she came back and advised me that there had been an error (heart stopped working for a split second), on their end (heart went into overdrive) and that everything had been corrected. The rest is kind of a blur, I vaguely remember confirming that everything was fine and that there was nothing further that I needed to do and that I was squared away. She must have reassured me because I started thanking her amidst my laughter and relief. After I got off the phone with her I had to tell me wife, so I called her up at work and told her about what had just happened. After sharing my story, she made the comment that for a moment her hopes had risen thinking that maybe I wouldn't be able to go to school and I would have to get a job! Silly woman, why get a job when I can get us into more debt?