Blog Entry 64

April 9th, 2010
It’s the weekend!! Not that that means much...we have so much to do this weekend that it will be a miracle if it all gets finished, but it’s the weekend nonetheless. 

I just finished printing my class notes in the library and now I have about two hours to kill before the Book Awards ceremony tonight. The ceremony honors students receiving the highest grade in each regular class, and then there are other students, like myself, receiving awards for service to the school. I’m just sticking around here, because it really isn’t worth my while to drive a half hour home and then a half hour back to school. After the awards reception this evening, my friend is having an “another year older party” downtown, so I guess I’m just going to be here all day long. I guess there are worse things in life, but it’s just going to be a long day. 

I’m hoping to get a good amount of my complaint finished so that I can get feedback from Chris, my ALTA TA, before it is due. He will be on campus most of the day tomorrow (now that’s dedication…) to answer our questions and I could really benefit from some expertise on this.

I am pretty anxious to finish the assignment because then I will be officially done with my ALTA class. It will be a bittersweet moment when I click on the “submit assignment” button and that “Assignment submission received” message appears on my screen. ALTA and I have certainly had our fallings out, but in hindsight, it was probably my favorite class this year. Now, before you go thinking that I’m some weirdo, give me a moment to explain. In ALTA, we got to take things that we learned in other classes and apply them practically. We got our first taste of being “real” lawyers and developing real-world skills, doing things that we might do when out in practice. (Because let’s face it, as important as substantive courses are, your senior partner is not going to come into your office and then quiz you on torts cases or the rule against perpetuities…) I look at the documents I prepared at the beginning of the year, and even the brief I wrote just a month ago, and think to myself, “wow, this is just not good…” I think it says a lot about how quickly we grow in ALTA you have the most difficult assignment you have ever been given, you produce something you are really proud of…and then the next month you look back at it and say “I could do SO much better than this…” 

Of course, to achieve that moment, I guess it would help if I finished my assignment…