Confessions of a Law Student: December 2011

Ok, as promised, here is my update for the past month or so.

Last day of Crim and Professor Cochran
The last day of Crim was tough, we had to study the case of my friend's brother. He got shot a few years ago when he went into the wrong apartment. I didn't know him very well, but Meredith was one of my best friends in elementary school and I went Matt's visitation after it happened. I understand why we studied the case- studying the case of someone that went to our law school and was our age drives home the reality of criminal law to everyone that hasn't experienced it themselves. Understanding why we study Matt's case is important, but it doesn't make it any easier.

On a lighter note, our Crim professor is leaving at the end of next semester to be the Dean at Belmont's new law school. Leirin and I decided we should give him a picture of our section, because he's a pretty awesome professor. He was a federal prosecutor and a Green Beret in the military for a while, so we weren't really expecting much emotion-wise from him. When we gave him the picture of us he actually started crying! I know it wasn't JUST because of the picture, it also reminded him that he won't be coming back to this school and that this is last time to teach Crim Law to 1Ls at Cumberland, but I was still really happy that he cared that much about us.

Last day of Contracts and Professor Walthall
The last day of Contracts was probably the second scariest day of my life. Professor Walthall is about 80 years old but incredibly young for his age. He's at the gym every day, just married a woman in her 60's this summer, and has the most energy of any of my professors. He walks into class with a huge gash across his eye and told us that he had fallen earlier the day before and his glasses had broken on his face but that he was doing fine and that the school's student health services were pretty good. He starts teaching class and about half way through he pulls out a chair. Well, this is weird because he NEVER sits down, but I thought maybe he was going to act out what the defendants had done, because he's that kind of professor. All of a sudden he just STOPS talking, his head falls forward and his eyes roll back in his head. I think he's having a stroke and dying. Some people go running like mad down the hallways trying to find someone to help us since we don't have a nurse at the school. About 4 of us are on the phone calling 911, and Leirin runs up to him and tilts his head back. Leirin starts panicking and drops his head while she's frantically asking people what to do and he starts turning bright red and purple because his airways are cut off. Someone shouts at her to keep his head back and she does. It felt like forever, but it was probably only 2-3 minutes when he finally wakes up. There's a security guard with us, one of the Deans, and the woman that pretty much runs everything in the school in the room by now. A few minutes later the EMTs arrive and hook up an EKG and are taking his blood pressure and stuff like that. Dean Strickland is crouched down with him and says "Well, I guess it's safe to say that we can let the class go, right?" Professor Walthall IMMEDIATELY responds "Absolutely not! We're going to finish up here! Chicken!"

The chicken part is for real, but he wasn't going crazy- the case we were studying was about what a "chicken" meant. Oh the intricacies of contract law. Anyway, he sends us an email later telling us that he had a fainting spell the day before which caused him to fall and break his glasses, and that this is something that has been happening to him for a while and it generally means he needs to exercise more, eat better, and drink less alcohol and caffeine. He said he has a cardiologist that was doing some outpatient tests on him and he would let us know if anything changed.

I'm definitely glad he was and is ok, but it was terrifying thinking you were watching your professor die in the middle of class.

Last day of Torts
My torts professor was definitely not my favorite professor, but we did have A LOT of funny quotes from his class. I decided to type them up, get the class to sign them, frame them, and give them to him at the end of the semester. I did and put it on the podium in front of the class when he got there and he looked at it for a while and said "Oh wow. I've never gotten anything like this before. I will really cherish this."

I'm sure when you read that it sounded really sentimental and heartfelt, but Nelson talks in monotone ALL the time so I really had no idea whether or not he was being serious. The only way I was able to tell he was serious was the next day he came into class and told us that he had hung it up in his office under his invitation to Reagan's inauguration.

Crim Final
meh- not so bad. I felt like I aced the multiple choice questions, and that everything I wrote about was correct. The problem is that his essay questions are statutory analysis and there's no way to know whether or not I missed an element of the statute without getting my test back.

Torts Final
Holy cow, was I going to the right class???? Luckily I wasn't the only one that felt that way. When Grace and I first started studying we realized that we hadn't learned a SINGLE element to any tort other than battery. We pretty much had to teach ourselves everything in the little time we had to study for finals. The exam was 46 pages long. Pages, not questions, PAGES, and they were all issue-spotting. That means the professor gives you this great big long story about the most unfortunate people you have ever heard about before and you have to write about every possible charge they could bring against any possible defendant. It's not fun.

Contracts Final
Lulu had an upset stomach the night before the Contracts final, so even though I couldn't sleep I had to get up and take her out at 1:30 in the morning which did not make me a happy person.

I feel like I did pretty well on the Contracts final too, but there was some issue-spotting on it as well. It definitely wasn't as bad because we had actually been taught stuff in that class, but again, there isn't any way to know if I missed an issue until I get the test back.

Civ Pro Final
The most difficult topic in civ pro wasn't tested on which was frustrating and a relief at the same time. Frustrating because I spent all that time studying it and stressing over the intricacies and loopholes, but relieving because when the test actually came I didn't have to worry about going brain dumb on Erie.

I felt like the multiple choice questions were ok, but everyone else said they were ridiculous, so I'm a little nervous about that. That either means that I knew the material better than I thought I did, or I definitely DIDN'T know the material and I did something very wrong.

Christmas Shopping
I didn't have time to go Christmas shopping while I was studying for exams so I bought almost all my presents online. I'm really happy with everything I got though, and I really think everyone is going to love their presents- especially daddy. I keep trying to tell him about them, but then remember I'm not supposed to :-)

Christmas Dress
What Christmas dress? That's another thing I didn't have time to shop for. Kiyoshi and I did go to the mall once and I tried on 3 dresses but I didn't like any of them. I just brought home one of the dresses I bought for Patrick and Kara's wedding that I didn't even end up wearing there.

Champagne Friday
After the civ pro final, Grace, Megan, Scotty, and I all went to my place and popped our champagne. It was a wonderful way to celebrate champagne Friday and the end of our first semester of law school!!

Kiyoshi's Graduation
It was a little stressful in the beginning because he couldn't find his tassel. Luckily I somehow managed to NOT lose mine and got it to him before the ceremony. It had the wrong year on it, but I don't really think anyone other than us knew that. The graduation itself was long and boring like all graduations are. I was very proud of him, and I clapped really loudly when he walked across the stage, but near the end I got overheated and ended up throwing up in the arena's bathroom. Sport complex bathrooms are NOT the ideal place to be sick...

End of the year party
Grace and her roommate threw a party and so did the 1L class the day before Kiyoshi graduated. Mom called and asked what we were doing to celebrate the end of the semester and we didn't have any plans, so she told Kiyoshi and I to go out to dinner. We went to the Cheesecake Factory (surprise!) and it was wonderful. Then we stopped by Grace's party for a little bit. There were only a few people there and we didn't stay for long, but it was fun. I did not go to the 1L Christmas party. There are plenty of people in my class that I like, but I was in serious need of a break from them, and I didn't want to fight parking downtown and have to pay for drinks.

Going home for the break
After Kiyoshi graduated and I was finished being sick we went back to my apartment and packed up and headed home. My car is acting up again so daddy drove my car and we got home around wish (I think, I honestly could be making that time up). We had plans to go to the Mauldin's to celebrate Anna's graduation, but since I had been sick all that day we didn't. I'm super proud of her too! She's officially an OTR (I know OT stands for occupational therapy, and I think the R stands for resident).

Being home is great, but a little weird. This is the first time I actually feel like I don't live at home anymore. Last year I was moving out of my apartment, and every year before that I was in a dorm and switching from my summer to winter clothes. This year I'm living out of a suitcase. But that's what growing up is like.

On the plus side, I haven't slept this well in a VERY long time. It's wonderful not to have to worry about my readings or whether or not I studied everything and understand everything.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! I love you!

Confessions of a Law Student

Background

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Winter Break

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Sneak Peek

Friday, December 2, 2011

Leave of Absence