The New Phase

My apologies for the week-long absence everyone! I was just a little bit busy - starting law school! On Monday and Tuesday I had orientation, and then I started class on Wednesday and just completed Day 3 today. It would be hard to truly sum up the week (I don't think I have enough perspective yet), but here are a few random thoughts.

- I am playing around with and tweaking my schedule, and thinking it may end up being on the "earlier" side compared to what a reasonable person in law school would ordinarily do. (Not that this matters, but reading law cases has already influenced how I think, I can tell...) Rush hour in this city is not the worst, but my drive is about 35 minutes when traffic is flowing smoothly, and it felt like some days this week it took 45-60 minutes. As one of my professors said "Time is money," and I feel like the frustration of slow-moving traffic would really get old, so I'm now planning on going to bed earlier, waking up earlier, going to school earlier, and hopefully coming home earlier as well. This will also be nice when hubby is living with me, since the military keeps him on a similarly "early" schedule! I will feel like an old lady being in bed by 10 all the time, but I think it will just make life work better.

- The schedule is manageable so far, but I do have to cut out a lot of "extra" things that I used to spend time on. Less pleasure reading (boo!), for one. I am not as responsive to keeping up with people, or as frequently on Facebook, but I suppose the Facebook thing isn't horrible, and I am just making an effort to keep up with people when I can. DVR (which I just got for the first time) is great for putting TV on MY schedule, rather than being flexible enough to be on its schedule. Certainly wouldn't want to miss the latest episode of Teen Mom [insert intelligent-sounding show here].

- I have met a lot of lovely people who are in classes with me, which is also facilitated by the fact that I have the same exact schedule as a group of 22 other students, and half the same schedule as about 100 or so, many of whom I'm getting to know. I am realizing that my social life will be different than it was in college though - "going out" is more difficult since I live further away, and probably also not as high on my priority list. I keep reassuring myself that I will make good friends with or without that stuff, as long as I continue to be generally open to new relationships. A lot of my classmates are starting to do things in the wonderful city where our school is located, and I want to do that stuff, but I'm hoping that someday I'll have a chance to do it with hubby, or that I'll get to it eventually. I have about 3 years here, so there is some time.

- I guess a common thread in some of these things is that I'm realizing that I'm not going to always be like the "average" classmate of mine. There are a few that are married, so I know others who have that person who needs to be a priority in their lives, so that's good. One classmate even has three kids and has been married for 12 years! The important thing though, is that I'm figuring out what works for me, and that is totally valid. Grad school is a different experience than the all-encompassing community of undergrad, and while school is a huge part of my life, I am also going to be working on cultivating my home life as a mostly separate atmosphere.

So far my overall experience has most definitely been positive and I feel more excited than anything. I'm looking forward to getting a few more classes and cases under my belt, but I definitely feel like I'm learning already, and that I didn't make a horrible choice, which is always a plus. I think I am also thriving with having more of a real schedule again - which I pretty much anticipated. Having the year off provides some good perspective for when I want to whine endlessly. I made the most of that year, but I love having a bit more purpose to the productive/professional side of life!

And of course there's the fun blog paradox that now that I have more to blog about, I will probably have less time to blog. I'll try my very best though!