Taking It One Day at a Time

I stubbornly had to remind myself during these past few weeks that Law School is an adventure that must be taken one day at a time. Although this is an undeniable truth for even a passionate soul like myself who fell in love with the Law way prior to attending Law School, this was definitely a bitter pill for me to swallow in a profession that is so unfriendly to this notion. The Law is a profession that eagerly rewards the ability to consider the present, reflect on the past, and foresee the future in one glance of thought and, it would be futile for anyone to try to do that one day at a time.

According to Rod’s Law of effective representation, these abilities represent the three best principles of good lawyering. To put this in context, a good lawyer must have the ability to consider his/her present caseloads, reflect on past court decisions, and foresee the outcome of his/her cases in a relatively short time.

Though I have tried to follow that same principle in Law School with my classes and the road to the bar exam, it has not worked. Unlike in the practice of law where this will work, however, here it is imperative for me to take things one day at a time--otherwise I will simply find myself overwelmed for no apparent reasons. In other words, I have to take the process semester by semester, class by class until it is time to begin preparing for the bar exam, which will not be until my third year in Law School.

In recent weeks, however, I found myself thinking of the bar exam while sitting in some of my classes and I am not scheduled to take the exam until one year from now. Though some would say this was a good thing and I would not necessarily disagree with such a point of view, but I firvently believe that any excessive contemplation of an event that is a year from occurring is at best, premature. Thus, this was a good time for me to be reminded of the fact that I needed to take the process one day at a time and, thinking about the bar exam while in my second year of Law School I now think, was definitely premature. No one can do everything at once just as the Empire State building was not built in one day despite its importance, and I do not wish to try to do everything at once in Law School. What’s important to me now is to keep moving forward until the process is over, and I will be doing that just one day at a time.