The Rollercoaster at Law School

In Mission Beach at Belmont Park is an old wooden roller coaster, the Giant Dipper.  I like wooden roller coasters - they jar you more than modern roller coasters and something can be said about the clicky-clack as the roller coaster screams around the track.  A roller coaster can be very fun - up and down and thrown to the side while whizzing around curves.

Emotions in law school are much like the ride of a roller coaster.  One moment your emotions are high in the air feeling the exhilaration of heights and wide open viewing space; the next moment your emotions are screaming to the bottom.  This week my emotions, or maybe more correctly, my stress levels were like a roller coaster.

If you were to ask my girlfriend which class I hate the most, she would reply, "Criminal Law!"  I moan and groan (this is the politically correct vernacular) every Monday and Wednesday about how I just don't get criminal law.  The issue statements I never get right.  I don't remember anything from the course.  Yet this week during the tutoring session, I felt like I had criminal law down pat.  I knew what the tutor was discussing and felt very confident.

One of the classes I like the most is Civil Procedure.  This week during the tutor session, I had zero clue.  The tutor had some hypothetical questions and I got everyone of them wrong.  So from the high on Tuesday to being dashed upon the rocks on Thursday, my emotions and stress levels were up and down.

I think this is natural for law school.  Since day one, I've felt good one day, only to feel down the next.  One moment I think I know what I'm talking about, the next moment I don't have a clue.  After much reflection of the past couple of days, I'm okay with this.

I know my stress levels and my emotions will be like a roller coaster.  I just need to be like a rider on the roller coaster - enjoy the ride because every roller coaster ends the same, safe back at the starting point.  All I have to do is survive to make it to the end. 

Law school is like life - there are ups and downs.  Enjoy the ride because one day it will be over.