It’s been a time, since I last re-entered the blogsphere…due in large part to the semester 2 workload, which is challenging in its breadth and scope. Second semester, year one means longer cases, more nuanced arguments and higher expectations based on the capacity you’ve been building since August.

It feels like discovering that you have superpowers. Suddenly, you can listen to an oral argument and understand the assertions being made. Classroom legal theory begins to reach out into the real world and all at once it seems you can make connections between facts, arguments and rhetoric. It’s like having x-ray vision, and is much cooler than it sounds.

Now, you may be inclined to ask …what have I been doing with my super powers? I’ve been listening to Supreme Court arguments for Con Law, traveling to Dartmouth to hear arguments at the Navajo Supreme Court and sitting in when the Vermont Supreme Court hears cases at the Law School. Primarily, I’ve just been using my newfound skills to delve deeper into the stuff lawyers really do, research. I’ve been reading, “holed up” in the library until closing, searching Westlaw and Lexis Nexus like a hungry beast trying to find cases and blurbs and squibs for memorandum. (Squibs are abstracts which briefly describe a case that relates to a point you are trying to make.)
I know that this stuff doesn’t sound sexy, but it is. Semester one is all about having your previous identity stripped from your present state of being. It can be painful, tiring and lonely but the bright side is that it doesn’t last that long. Second semester is loads of work but trust me, that’s better because it means that you’ve learned something and can start applying it to the universe of problems being thrown at you. It’s empowering and almost makes up for the scanty social life you’re left with during second semester. Trivia night, Wynterfoest and the “nerd Olympics” qualifier known as “broomball” keep you going between the endless winter and impending mud season.

Alas, spring break is upon us. In less than 24 hours I will be on a plane to the place where the rain falls mainly in the plains. J J J Spanish Constitutional Law in Sevilla is finally here and I am more than ready for a change of scenery. The weather report says I can leave my Northface uniform in Vermont and don a pair of sunglasses for sun rather than snow blindness. Yippee!! My goals are to learn something and eat some things one cannot find at the local SoRo eatery. I’ll report on my travels and good fortune in the next installment.

Hasta luego!