Motivation

There are a lot of things I really like about law school. The readings are (for the most part) really interesting, the classes are engaging, and the people (again, for the most part) seem pretty cool.

This week, however, I've really started to notice a different degree of anxiety amongst a good portion of the 1Ls, or at least the 1Ls I know. Our first memo is due this week and people seem to be freaking out over it a bit. They told us only to spend 10 hours on it and I know there are a lot of people who are spending way more than that. It's not due until Monday at 5pm and people are on like their third drafts.

I, on the other hand, have a rough outline done. I just am not getting worked up into a frenzy over it. The first memo we did went pretty well for me, and while this one is certainly more complicated and is about twice as long, I see no reason to get stressed out over it. The class is pass/fail and the memo is graded on a scale of 1 to 5 and we're expected to get 3s.

This isn't to say I don't want to do a good job, but both this week and last week in our legal research class, we were getting tips on how to organize and analyze our memos and some people already have them written. I'm glad I don't have it written yet, because I think I got a lot out of our class discussions.

Yet, I find myself second-guessing. What if I'm not motivated enough? Why am I not worried? Taking a few years off from hard-core academia certainly mellowed me from my undergraduate ways. I don't want to be too lax, but with just reading assignments (with the exceptions of this memo), it's hard to get yourself worked up over the assignments. As long as I've read and am ready for class discussions in case my name is called, I don't worry at all.

I've heard that after fall break, things will start to get even more frantic. I do hope to start outlining over that long weekend, but I just don't feel any anxiety yet. Maybe I really have calmed down in the years since I was a stressed out mess. Or maybe I'm deluding myself. Only time will tell.