What would you tell your 1L self ... ?
Moderator
🚨We all wish we could do a few things over in life — so, if you had that chance and could warp back in time to give your 1L (or pre-law) self some advice, what would it be?
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Organize your notes! It takes extra time to make your notes clean and organized, but you’ll thank yourself later when you don’t have to decode your old outlines to make sense of the material.
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Keep a reminder of why you're in law school nearby! Maybe it's a career goal or an inspiration. It can be easy to get lost in the day-to-day of law school and forget that the world exists outside the walls of your school. A tether to the outside world always helps to keep things in perspective.
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Take time for YOURSELF. It's easy to burn out, make sure you do things that bring you joy!
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Don't let the pressure of what other people are doing get to you. Figure out what works for you (study schedule, note taking, days off, etc.) and just run your own race.
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Use more resources! Go to your professor's office hours, use the study aids, ask questions, make good study friends. Don't let the pressure get to you, work at your own pace. :)
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Start your outlines early, but don’t try to do it all by yourself! Use your academic resources, outline banks and various educational references to be successful!
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You're going to feel like a failure, but you are NOT a failure. Allow yourself to feel whatever you need to feel and trust that you will get past that feeling as you continue to work hard towards your goal.
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- take time for yourself. law school is a lot—reading, extracurriculars, outlining, etc., but take that extra ten mins to grab a coffee with a friend, enjoy meals without working, and remember to breathe. it goes by quicker than you realize, and you don't want to look back on it with regrets because you didn't make the relationships you wanted to, or cultivated like you should've.
- write down your motivation—why are you here? where do you want to go? talk about what you're doing today in this moment. when it gets hard, look at it. add to it. it makes for a nice scrapbook piece when you graduate and when you start your job. our hopes, goals, dreams, and motivations are always changing, but you need something to ground you so you know where to go, and reflect on where you've been.
- set a relative deadline for when you don't work anymore for the night. could you do more? probably. should you do more? it depends. but you still have a life outside of school. get, or re-visit, a hobby. go to trivia. join a bowling league. get, or do, something that you look forward to every week. learning now how to set boundaries is healthy and helps keep your mental health check. the grind mindset is a difficult one to get out of and will lead to burnout mid-semester.
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Midterms don't define you. Whether you did great, poor, or average, there are so many points left on the table so kick it into high gear and get those great grades!!!
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Spend more time with your classmates. Build deeper relationships here. These are the people who will be thriving with you when you reach the top of the field. It's nice to have friends there when you make it!
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I would tell my 1L self that you must study and adjust your mindset to law school. In undergrad I was able to excel with little to no studying and I had to learn quickly that, that was not going to work here in law school.
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