Rachel Kleinman, 1L

Columnist

Remember when you didn’t know what a tort was? Suddenly spring break has come and gone, and most of us are far too preoccupied by outlining for exams to consider how quickly the year has passed, let alone how much we’ve learned. They said the first year of law school would scare us to death, but it didn’t. In fact, from what I can tell, it’s going to be a short three years.

It’s amazing how our perception of time works. I remember waiting endlessly for my admissions letters to arrive. Days were excruciatingly long. Then, once the decision was made, the final weeks of summer fled rapidly away. Similarly, the first weeks of law school crept slowly, one after the other, full of anxiety about being cold-called and dreams about showing up to class naked or forgetting to study for an exam. Halfway through first semester, however, we were veterans, cranking out last-minute case-briefs and navigating the library like champions. In two months’ time, we’d already learned skills and formed friendships that would last a lifetime.

Ours was no ordinary first semester, either. Remember a little thing called the presidential election? Despite being bogged down by reading assignments and inter-office memoranda, 1Ls were as engaged in the election as anyone. Many of us hit the campaign trail, volunteering for candidates in swing states. Others were simply glued to CNN and The New York Times. Either way, our first semester was undeniably marked by that important time which now, oddly, feels like ancient history and yesterday at the same time.

Second semester came with advantages. By January we had a clearer idea of what to expect and what was expected of us in return. We had survived our first exam period, during which we discovered that, contrary to what we’d heard, our classmates did not morph into sharks who would sabotage our outlines at any cost in order to beat the curve. Cardozo was not the cutthroat law school we’d feared, but a cooperative academic environment where students actually cared more about learning and helping one another than winning any kind of imaginary competition.

Then the summer job search began, and competition among 1Ls peaked subtly and unexpectedly. While everyone clamored to find employment in this hellish job market, nobody said a word. Where 1Ls normally commiserated about common gripes and frustrations, the summer job search was uniquely marked by secretiveness. While some people landed the summer jobs of their dreams, others struggled to find anyone who would hire them to work for free. Unfortunately, in that way, our second semester can be aptly characterized by the failing economy.

Now, here we are, just weeks before exams, wishing we’d buckled down more during spring break, and I can’t help but wonder whether the coming weeks will pass quickly or slowly. It seems as though the semesters fly by and then “exam time” lasts forever. Still, there are never enough hours in the day to get everything done—to study enough, to sleep enough, to eat enough, and to relax. I just can’t believe our first year of law school is almost over. This, they say, is the hardest one. And so, despite the urgency of exams, I urge you to stop and consider for a moment just how quickly the time has passed.