How I spent my Sunday Vacation
Rumor has it, 3L’s have it relatively easy. There is only slight variation in how the word “easy” is defined for holders of this belief. But for the most part easy is defined as having more free time and fewer demands on that time.
Legal methods is vastly time consuming. I would even venture to call it the single most time consuming two-credit class I have had the pleasure of taking. Of course, as a 3L, I don’t have to worry about that. And I’ve already mentioned that Constitutional Law and Evidence are two of the most difficult and important classes you will ever take in law school. Again, 3L’s like myself have been there and done that. So this leads to the inevitable and obvious conclusion that all the time a 1L spends on legal methods or a 2L spends on Con Law and Evidence, a 3L is able to spend catching up with old friends, or maybe even catching up on sleep, watching TV, yoga...the sky is the limit, right? Well, it certainly should be.
It’s Sunday. I had no classes today, no meetings for the clinic, MCLSA, BLSA, Publication committee or student external relations committee, no workshops to attend or moderate, and I don’t work on Sundays. I had already spent most of the day yesterday outlining and reading for class (I know I don’t talk about it much, but yes I do have class). So today was as good a day as any to explore this notion of free time. I woke up this morning and decided to do just that.
Then it dawned on me that one of my clients through the RWU Community Justice Clinic is in dire need of custody of her daughter. Until she has custody she cannot enroll her eleven year old daughter in school and it’s now halfway through the fall semester. So I thought I would work on her case for a few hours first. Afterward, I researched some guardianship issues for another client with whom I am meeting tomorrow.
Speaking of research, I was reminded of my directed research project. I may already have told you about it. I am writing an article about whether it violates the constitutional principle of fundamental fairness to require a criminal defendant to make a showing of “some evidence” before he or she can get discovery to prove selective prosecution on the basis of race. Essentially you have to prove your case, before you can get evidence to prove your case. I knew it would be to my benefit to spend at least a few hours working on it today. Since my mind was already in research mode, I did just that.
Afterward, I remembered that the next legal rights education workshop for the RWU Pro Bono Collaborative is fast approaching. It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to do some research on immigration or housing to prepare for that. After I did the research I suddenly remembered that the MCLSA general meeting is next week and I still had some work left to do on the agenda. So I thought to myself, “it won’t take long, why not get that out of the way next?” So I did.
In fact, it didn’t take long. So I figured, I could still do a couple more things and get to my free time later. My post graduation job hunt was being treated rather shoddily in terms of time allocation. So I worked on that. Then I figured, while I’m thinking about my future, I should work on some practice questions for the upcoming Bar Exam Training class. Because without that, it certainly won’t matter how much time I spend on the job hunt.
By the time I was finished it was about 8:30. And I had yet to use my free time. Oh well, there’s always next Sunday.
