Went to a cafe this morning to start studying at 7:30. I grab a bagel and a banana and sit down and start hauling out all of my criminal law materials, all the while trying to fight back that anxiety that wants to creep in. (And was greatly increased yesterday after a couple 2Ls asked me who I had for Criminal Law and then after I told them replied with an "Enjoy your C.")
Just when I think I'm sick of this, and I'm ready to give up, enter Pauline, a woman who is employed on the maintenance staff here in Grace Hall. Pauline has 9 kids, and she raised them all by herself, after her husband died in a truck accident. She used to work in the fields in Colorado ~ that's how we got to chatting, and has been here at Notre Dame since the 70s. At one point, she had me tearing up when she was describing her two children who have already passed away. She used to work as maintenance staff in the dorms, and she was so close to her "kids" that she'd loan them her car whenever (she offered it to me numerous times), and the football team once came and painted the entire inside of her house. She's the same age as my mother, with 21 grandchildren and even some great-grandchildren. And now I think no matter how difficult this crim law stuff and Dutile's issue spotter are, I'm going to count my lucky stars that I'm not trying to raise nine kids on my own and I'm still at the point in my life where my friends and family don't fault me for only taking care of myself and trying to better myself and get an education. Especially because should I ever find myself in a situation where I was responsible for 9 other people, I'm pretty sure that I couldn't do it with even half of Pauline's spirit and charm.
In the mean time, back to mens rea and complicity.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
a little perspective
Posted by Little Bagel at 4:30 AM
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2 comments:
First of all, nice post, it's always good to get a little perspective at times like these.
Second of all, seriously, don't listen to 2Ls. Or 3Ls. Or other 1Ls. I mean it. Absolutely no good whatsoever can come from listening to people talk about how hard/easy/impossible/ridiculous/whatever an exam is/was/will be. It's just the biggest waste of time ever, and it's incredibly counterproductive. Makes you stressed without adding to your actual knowledge in any way.
As for Dutile, this idea that everyone gets a C or D from him is ridiculous. His median is slightly lower than your average law school class, but only slightly, and it's about the same as Gurule's, or was my 1L year. Garnett's was a little better, but it's not like it was a drastic difference. I got a B+ in Dutile's class, and I went into that exam TERRIFIED about how unprepared I was.
The only "Smiling Assassin" you have to worry about is the fellow student who's teling you stuff that makes you all stressed out for no good reason. :)
P.S. You know why 2Ls and 3Ls tell you "enjoy your C"? For the same reason frat boys haze pledges and seniors make fun of freshmen: because it happened to them, and now they want to spread the misery on to the next generation. When we were 1Ls, we heard all the same b.s. that you're hearing now. We're just passing the torch.
Stop the cycle, I say! :)
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