Lawschool Journal
Week 6 11/4/02
Wow. The quarter is half over! That is just bizarre. So tomorrow I start my 6th week of law school. Things are great. I am just so happy to be using and stretching my brain. 
So as promised, I’ll tell you a bit about my class mates. The coolest thing about UW law is the people. The most important thing about my class is that it is really balanced: people are fun, smart, hard working, social. Everyone is really cooperative. The second most important thing about my class is how diverse they are. There is good ethnic diversity, but what I really mean is diversity of experience. A lot of people have been out of undergrad for at least a few years. Something like 30% of my class is over 30. And 66% of my class is women! So what makes diversity cool is that you start a conversation with someone, and right away the conversation becomes 
really interesting. They may have travelled, or gotten other degrees, or worked, or all three. And people have done really different things, so each conversation is different. Even if I fail as a lawyer, having met these people will have been worth it. At orientation the administrative people kept telling us over and over that it would be the relationships we make that would be the most important thing. Well I believed them then, and I believe them more now. It may be that I appreciate things more because I’m a bit older. I don’t think I would have appreciated this diversity as much when I was 18 (that seems so young! But it is only 7 years ago for me).
So, next on my agenda was extra-curricular activities. This week I’m doing a client counseling competition with a partner from my section. (As an aside, our 1L class is broken up into 7 sections. Each section has the same classes and professors. I really like my section.) I’ll tell you how that was once it happens, but the idea is to give advice to mock clients. You don’t have to know the law, you just have to be a good listener and good communicator and make sure they understand their options.
Another activity I’m doing started in a funny way. I went to the first meeting of the year of the Technology Law Society and they wanted 1Ls to run for offices in their board. So during the meeting, they asked the people who showed up if anyone wanted to be Treasurer. I was the only one who raised my hand, so I was unanimously elected. I think it is my first “elected” position ever! But, I’m excited about the Tech Law society (TLS). The field of tech law is growing so fast, it is a real whirlwind!
I may be doing a research project for the Shidler Center for Law, Commerce & Technology. They need people to research for a website that provides information to nonprofit organizations and grassroots groups who use the Internet as a form of communication about their legal rights and responsibilities. This is a kind of dovetail of my two interests, so I’m hoping it will be interesting.
And I’ve been lifting 2-3 times a week. 
I’ll tell you, it is hard to eat enough what with all the calories my brain and body are burning. And the fact that I’ve lessened my sugar intake has made it even harder because I used to get a lot of my calories from sugar. I’ve had to be more creative about my snack foods.
Well, that is all for this week’s installment. Next week I’ll try and talk about how the outlining process is going (I’m just starting my outlines now).
