Yay!

This is the inaugural post of this journal. Hello there Mr. Internet Surfer - my name is Tom (hereafter referred to as '1L Masochist'). Damn good to meet you! Seriously, I don't expect anyone to actually read this, but if you ever do come accross it, please let me know! I would be flattered to hear from you.

I'm a first year law law school student (called a "1L" in fancy law school lingo) at a law school in the northeastern United States. I grew up in western Canada and went to a large public university in the states for my undergraduate degree. My mother is American and so I was raised a dual citizen and I've lived in both Canada and the USA at various points in my life. I finished college and didn't know what to do with my life, so I spent a few years travelling around the continent working oddball jobs and trying to "find myself". The thing is, my travels actually made me more confused and unsure what to do next.

Last year I decided to apply to law schools. My reasoning for going to law school wasn't as noble as some of my peers; I'm not here to save the world. Honestly, I ended up here because law school looked more interesting than medical school and having a liberal arts degree was getting me nowhere real fast. It was either joining the McManagement team at McDonalds or grad school, and law school seemed as good a choice as anything else. My mediocre undergraduate GPA and LSAT scores made it damn near impossible to get into a Canadian law school, as there are only a handful in the entire country and they're very competitive. American schools are easier to get into and give out more scholarships, so I applied to a plethora of schools and by the grace of God I was accepted into a few of them. I'm not sure what I expected law school to be like, but let's be fair, I imagined it would be more like my undergraduate years. How very wrong I was!

I started law school last August, and it was definitely no yachting party. I figured that one out on the first day during my very first class (Contract Law) when my highly intimidating professor began yelling at me in front of 100 other students (called the "Socratic Method" style of teaching). The realization that law school is a brutally boring and tedious field of study was a rude awakening for me, precipitated not only by my in-class exploits, but also by the hundreds of pages of reading I have to do each night. I got through the first semester (barely) and my grades were ok but not great. My GPA for the first semester was a 2.3, which is definitely in the lower half of the class. I guess I could be ashamed to get a 'C' average at a crappy third-tier law school, but really, life's too short to beat yourself up over shit like that. I've always been a mediocre student but I gave it my best shot and still barely survived the first semester. On top of that, I was miserable the entire time. I'm not sure I want to be a lawyer anymore, but one year of law school without a degree won't do anything for me, either. I guess it's a sign you are fucked when you begin and end the academic semester saying "what the hell am I doing here?"

I live in a house full of drunk bastards who eat my food without asking, never do the dishes they eat off of, never clean anything in the house, and throw parties every single weekend which make it almost impossible to sleep or get work done. I'm stuck here with them because of my 1-year lease and because I can't afford to live elsewhere. My girlfriend broke up with me my first day of law school, over the phone, long distance. Tuition at my school costs over $30,000 and in all I took out over $40,000 in loans just to pay for this year, on top of the $80,000 in debt I already have from my undergraduate degree. My law school won't let me have a job my first year and my parents don't give me any money so I'm dead broke. This year has re-defined how I look at money and how I spend it. I'm also a stubborn bastard and once I start something I seldom quit because I admittedly have a lot of pride.

I'm still here because I've got nothing to lose. I'm not sure what will come next and I don't even know if I'll stay in law school past my first year, but I do know I won't give up right now and I will survive my first year come hell or high water. This journal is intended to help chronicle my experiences during my first year. Law is pretty boring but I promise to do my best to entertain you as I embark upon the second semester of my first year of law school. Welcome!