M.S.E.L. Students Blog

It took awhile, but at some point well into January, long after exams were taken and forgotten, our fall semester grades were finally posted.  Ever since then there’s been a lot of controversy over the curve, but that’s not really what I’m blogging about at the moment.  Maybe later; we’ll see.

I took two courses in the fall: Environmental Law (4 credits) and Environmental Writing 1 (2 credits).  I did… uh… not bad.  Earlier, in Term 4 of Summer Session 2007, I took a 2-credit course: Strategic Planning for Sustainable Development.  I did “not bad” in it, too.  (Yeah, the good folks at VLS were nice enough to let me get started a bit early, even though my application and admission were for the fall of 2007.  I liked that summer class.  And I liked the blueberries that were in season on campus at that time.  Yum!)

I say this not to toot my own horn, or to imply that my grades were perfect; I’ll leave it to the reader’s imagination how good “not bad” grades actually are.  I could just as well reveal things about my academic history that I’m not proud of.  As an undergraduate I did okay, but then I attempted graduate school… twice… and it just didn’t work for me.  Without going into too much detail about how bad it was or why, I’ll say that I didn’t exactly shine in my early attempts at graduate studies.  Frustrated and disappointed in myself, I quit trying, took a job, and was out of school for several years.

Then I applied to VLS.  I didn’t relish having to explain my poor past performance, but I hoped that the admissions committee would be understanding and compassionate (after all, everyone goes through rough times in life, right?), and see something in me that would be worthy of another chance.  I guess they did, since I’m here now.  And so far, in the three courses I’ve completed, I’ve done… not bad.  That’s a great feeling.  Redemption!  I am myself again!  (I hope!  [Knocks on wood.]  I tend to have an irrational fear of jinxing good things by discussing them! )

Thank you, VLS, for believing in me, and for giving me the opportunity to succeed and to create a new and better history for myself.

And to those of you out there who don’t have spotless transcripts: don’t let that deter you.  It’s never too late to try again and do better.

Well I’d just opened up this text editor dealie to write another post and yammer on mindlessly about how I was overly cynical and I did, in fact, get into that ADR course (yay!) and how neither of my courses this spring has any exams (yay — I think!) and stuff, but now I have something really worthwhile to share.

This link was just emailed to me by someone who once knew U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer.  Some funny stuff there.  http://www.texasbar.com/saywhat/weblog/

Law is fun.  It really is.

So I’ve been meaning to post more for awhile.  No, really, I mean it.  But I’ve been busy.  No, really, I have.  I spent winter break moving to another town (also in New Hampshire).  I now live even farther away than I did.

I took my Environmental Law final on December 17.  It was something like three hours, as I recall.  I was wise enough to eat a relatively filling breakfast beforehand, so I wasn’t interrupted by hunger during the exam.  Unfortunately, however, I got very thirsty.  I’d thought to take a bottle of water, but didn’t have one ready to go when I was rushing out the door, so… I just suffered through.  I don’t recommend it.  Take water to your three-hour exams.  Better to  have it and not need it, as they say.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get any real feedback on that final.  I’ve had this nagging fear ever since, though, that I made some silly mistake and if I could see the graded exam I’d smack my forehead and think “Oh, I knew that!  What possessed me?”

So as I understand it, Professor Firestone doesn’t give back graded exams.  Darn it.  It always annoys me when professors adopt this policy; as I see it, the exam is part of what I’m paying for, it’s my work, and I’d like to have it.  For future reference, perhaps?  I might forget something some day.  Or for feedback, so I’ll know what I need to brush up on.  After all, I’m paying for an education, not just credit hours and grades.  Getting an exam back can be educational, in my book.

Okay, I’m done griping about that.  I’m over it.  Really, it’s not that big a deal, I guess. 

Now, on to the spring semester…

I still don’t know my spring schedule for sure, but it looks like I’ll be taking the second semester of Environmental Legal Research and Writing, at least.  That’ll be fun.  The first course was very useful.  And I’m waitlisted for an ADR (alternative dispute resolution) course that I’d really like to take, but am not optimistic about getting into.  I guess I get another shot at it next year — that’s one of the advantages of part-time status… taking more than one year means more than one chance at your top-choice classes.  (Oh, did I mention that the semester started today [January 09, 2008]?  But none of the classes I’m taking, or possibly taking, meet before tomorrow.  So yeah.)

Oh, I mustn’t forget to rave about the chocolate fountain.  VLS hosted a holiday party at the end of the fall semester, complete with a chocolate fountain.  Yay!  There’s another advantage to taking more than one year here: multiple holiday parties. 

Cheers!
Sally