The Swimming

Law school is kind of like teaching a child to swim.

You know when you get to that point that where the child can swim, but they don’t know it yet? You hold out your arms and tell them to just swim to your arms. But you deceptively back away as they are swimming so that they never quite reach you? And then suddenly you grasp them up and show them that they have swum across the entire pool! (A little review for those of you that thought you teach a child to swim by throwing them in a pool)

Well in law school, all your time is filled with law school. It is like the child who is immersed in the water during the time they are learning to swim. (Ok, I know that part was a reach). Well anyway, the rest of it is pretty good. Ok, so at the beginning of the semester you have a certain amount of work to do. And it pretty much takes up all your time. You are just learning how to read and brief cases, so short readings take forever. Then over time, you start to adjust and get faster at it. Only now, on top of doing the readings, you have two memo’s to write. Suddenly that extra time that you thought you would get if only you could read and brief faster is taken up by something else. Then you begin to schedule a sort of regular writing time into your schedule, and you are faster at that too. But, low and behold, now you have to start making outlines and studying them. At this point, I can finish what used to take me all night in about an hour. But after that hour is done, I still have enough writing and outlining to take me all night.

No matter how fast I swim, I still end of choking before I reach the outstretched arms that have moved to the other side of the pool.