Reflections on my first year

1L year. I am almost exhausted just thinking about it. And, I am pretty sure it took me until mid June to recover from the exhaustion of the year. I guess it wasn’t too bad though, I only fell asleep at a restaurant once and that was during finals, so it doesn’t really count. There were times when my favorite part of the day was getting ready in the morning; simply because it was the only part of the day I wasn’t reading, writing or researching. However, despite the work (and yes there was a lot of it), and despite the exhaustion, I survived. Not only did I survive, but I managed to do so successfully. Out of the numerous nightmares I had about finals, legal skills memorandums, and criminal law (and yes there were a bunch of them) none of them ever really materialized. For example, I never got to a final and had just NO idea where to start, and that may have been my worst fear last December. Yes, it is a lot of work and it takes a lot of mental commitment, but it is doable and keeping that in mind throughout the year really helps. Thousands and thousands have done it before, thousands and thousands will do it in the future. At the end of it, being able to get through the year, the year that everyone claims is so terrible, is a really good feeling of accomplishment.


Furthermore, doing my 1L at Quinnipiac Law specifically was a really great experience. Everyone here genuinely cares and is there to help. Upper level students were willing to provide their old outlines; professors help you figure out what an outline for a law exam needs to look like; and the staff helps will all sorts of issues you may encounter during that year. As an example of this, on Labor Day of my 1L year I was rushed to the ER to have my appendix removed. The surgeon told me I probably wasn’t going to be able to sit up for a week or lift more than 10 pounds for a month. I was literally freaking out in tears sitting in that hospital bed in New Haven. I had no idea how I was supposed to miss a week of school three weeks into the first year. For some misinformed reason I figured the school wouldn’t care about my predicament. I couldn’t have been more wrong if I had tried. The school was incredibly great about helping me stay on top of everything. The staff immediately got in touch with all of my professors, who were really great about sending me the assignments and making sure that I felt comfortable when I got back to school. A fellow student got me all of the notes from that week and the school even arranged so that I could park closer to the building when I returned so as to eliminate any complications from surgery. I can’t even fully express how grateful I was for everything the school did in helping me not fall behind so early in the semester. I may be biased, but QU Law really is a great place, with really great people, and my appendix experience is only one small example of how great it really is.

Victoria Templeton '11