And Just Like That, I Survived 1L Fall

Answering your questions about the first semester of law school

1L fall was the best semester of my life. I can attribute it to many things: to loving law school, my friends, the structure, being busy. Yet what I think it comes down to is the fact that I’ve never learned wholly for the sake of learning; I’ve always had an ulterior motive or end goal (namely, to get into law school). For the first time, I feel like I’m exactly where I need to be, and I’m just enjoying the ride.

Contrary to the title of this post, I don’t think 1L fall is something to “survive.” It’s certainly demanding, and at times it feels overwhelming, but it’s also a lot of fun. Both during and after the semester, I thought at length about why the first semester of law school is so uniquely difficult, and I arrived at two conclusions: it’s hard because (1) the work is foreign and (2) it’s a right of passage. Reading a case in the first week of law school is a comically different experience than reading one at the end of the semester. Over time, words like “therein” and “dispositive” became part of my vocabulary, and writing case briefs became as routine as showing up to class. Still, all law schools seem to front-load the first semester with massive amounts of work and assignments relative to the following semester and beyond. I think it’s helpful to view this as a right of passage in the sense that if you can handle the first semester, you can handle being a lawyer (or at least, the rest of law school).

I put a question box on my Instagram story a few weeks ago, and many of you had similar questions: is there anything you wish you knew before starting law school? How has it been making friends and being social? How do you push past the competitiveness? Let’s chat.