The First Day

               High expectations and high hopes facing the first day of law school. The subject is Persons and Family Relations. Orientation at 3:00 and while listening, my mind thought of many possible outcomes of these waters I'm testing. The speaker shares many experiences which can be motivation for some while an added fear to some. They say "you've never been to law school if you've never failed an exam" or "you've never encountered an experience wherein you are given a certain set of topics to study and the questions in recitations, quizzes, or exams cover another set of topics not given to you", well some students laughed, some maintained a straight face, while I look at the speaker and asked myself "How can I pass this course if I hate reading?" but I know that such things may be learned along the way. 

               The orientation ended and we went to the classroom, seeing new faces wearing casual attire, some in  work uniform, and some in a semi-formal attire. A few minutes later, we just found out that the teacher for that subject posted an assignment for the class to read cases which was given a week earlier and the class only found out at that time. The class felt immediate fear and did not know what to do. When the professor arrived, he showed the intent to give a graded recitation on the first day but he kindly considered the situation of the students and decided to do introductions instead and postpone the recitation the next meeting. The aura in the room greatly changed even knowing that there is no recitation, still there is some sort of tension inside the room. I introduced myself to the professor and even with that simple task my heart was pounding so fast it was like the time was frozen and I was asked a question related to my name and I did not even know the answer to such question. It was a day which gave me a lot of doubts whether to continue or not but thankfully I did not give in to those doubts and decided to continue. 

                Law school is a beautiful mess, scary but fun, hard but fulfilling, and expensive but worth it. As an advice to incoming first years, a failure does not make you small, instead find a way to break your fall.