All right, I’ve been in law school now for a week and a half, and I think I’ve figured out how things work. Stop me if I’m wrong:

I get an assignment. I go home and do the reading; then I do the reading again. After briefing the cases and maybe discussing them with some classmates, I feel like I’m in good command of the material. Then I go to class, and an hour and fifteen minutes later, I’ve found out that I didn’t actually know any of the stuff I thought I did.

Talking to other 1Ls and Dean Shields leads me to believe that this is pretty typical, and likely to continue until sometime around first-semester finals.

At this point, after driving across the country for a week and getting through a hectic week of orientation, I’m just glad to have something that resembles a routine. Who knew that wandering around in a state of confused oblivion would ever feel so comfortable!