Barbara Carroll

“It gets better I promise!” “You have no time for friends, forget a social life, the library will be your only escape”. These are the kind of statements you hear walking into law school. Horror stories upon horror stories are the ONLY thing you hear going into law school. Fortunately, I have not found 1L life to be as bad as people told me.

One reason I think that I have found it a lot easier then I had planned was because of all the warnings I received. I had built a story in my head of how miserable my life would be and I accepted that as my fate. I have found that my life is nothing like that horrific story. The problem is that I am waiting for the bomb to drop. The day law school turns into the dreaded life that I had once been warned of.

After completing my first month of law school I have found myself to be very fortunate. Many of my friends and family members are currently at different law schools and they are having a very difficult time experiencing the typical 1L experience. I have learned to truly appreciate Kent. Kent has such a different approach to law school; the object is not to scare you into learning, not to fear failure, but to do your best.

The mentality that I have encountered is one of encouragement. We are all intelligent, we are all here together, therefore we are equal and we will get through this. The students are not as competitive as I expected, actually they are a strong source of encouragement. The professors are all interesting, welcoming and caring (not the stereotypical law school professors). The classes are incredibly interesting and the workload is not so overwhelming that I feel I have to stay in the library until it closes every night!

Overall, my experience thus far has been shockingly wonderful. The nightmares and the warnings do not seem to have been warranted. Law school has been an adjustment- life is definitely different. Studying habits have to change and the amount of reading takes a lot of getting used to. Besides having to get used to some changes, I have truly been enjoying my law school experience-thus far!!!

Anna Misfeldt

There are scores of books discussing what you can expect from law school. I’d read a couple of them the summer before school started but none prepared me for what I encountered. I found after school began, though, that good advice can come from surprising sources.

After graduating with a degree in Food Communications, I worked as a cookbook editor and a home economist. I knew cookies and calories, not courts and cases. The hours of reading, the Socratic method and indecipherable judicial decisions had my head spinning. Overwhelmed? I skipped that step and went straight to terrified.

But about a month into school, I finally found a guide that brought everything into focus. No, it wasn’t Emanuel or Gilbert. It was Harry Potter. The similarities to my own situation struck me immediately as I watched. In the movie—no time for books this semester—Harry goes off to Hogwartz, a wizardry school. Everything he encounters is strange and different. The things he needs to learn seem to have no connection to the outside world. This was my initial reaction to law school.

Harry has classes in potions and sorcery; I learn the black arts of torts and contracts. He studies spellbooks; I study casebooks. An evil teacher skulks around Harry’s school; the seemingly evil Socratic method lurks in my classes.

Alas, no magic wand can get me out of trouble when I haven’t done the reading for Criminal Law, but Harry Potter’s experience made me reevaluate my reaction to law school. Thinking of law school as an adventure, a road to travel to get to my goals rather than as a prison sentence, has lifted my fatigue and anxiety. I again feel the excitement that I felt when first deciding to attend law school.