M.S.E.L. Students Blog

Being involved in NAELS and Solutions since September, it has finally come!  Everything is going on in Burlington today and then in South Royalton tomorrow.  I hope that it all goes well especially with the ‘white out’ traveling conditions.  I am sure it will.  Quite a few VLS students, almost half of the conference registrants, are not here yet, so we are hoping that as the classes down at VLS get finished that they start to trickle up to Burlington for the two afternoon panels.  Wish us luck with this large event! 

I am done with traveling at least for about the next two weeks.  I have noticed that I am in my usual routine, but my sleep schedule is really off.  I have been going to bed so early and waking up really early too, and it seems pretty lame for my age.  But I find myself, being this far into the winter, getting really tired early in the evening.  I think it is because Vermont, I heard, has the fewest amount of sunny days out of any of the states.  Therefore, by not having too many sunny days, I am getting tired and feeling deary and gloomy just like the weather usually is.  So I would recommend finding an outdoor or indoor hobby that just gets you pumped up and excited to be in Vermont.  I went to yoga last night at a studio in Pittsfield with a couple of friends.  We had a great ride to the studio and a great session that relieved all of our stress that we had built up.  I felt great afterwards and ended up staying up later getting more of my homework done.  So when you are in Vermont, get in the habit of getting out and about at all times of year to keep your mind clear, stress down, and to keep a smile on your face

(Now in case you’re thinking “you’re kidding, Sally — you say ’so yeah’ way too much in your blogs,” let me just claim that I do that on purpose to keep the blogging informal, even conversational, and I am actually capable of writing something relatively professional-sounding when necessary.  I think.  But for whatever reason I tend to think that blogging, by its nature, should be fairly colloquial.  That may be an unjustified opinion, but we all have our idiosyncrasies.  But I’m off on a tangent now.  So yeah.)

So I had my oral argument on Tuesday morning.  Oh my goodness.  I could have used an extra day or two to work on my brief, which was due last Friday and probably would have been better if, at the last minute, I’d suddenly been given an extension on the deadline (however, if the deadline had been later to start with, I would have just procrastinated longer to get to work on the brief and it would have ended up just as sucky).  So my brief wasn’t as good as I would have liked, and there were improvements I would have made if time permitted, but I’m still holding out some hope that my brief wasn’t totally horrible either (at least until it is returned to me with a grade that says otherwise).  I like to think that it was relatively coherent and somewhat logical and that I did an acceptably decent job of following the conclusion-rule-application-conclusion format.  I know it could have been better, but maybe it wasn’t bad enough to merit the word “NO” scribbled across the top as the professor’s feedback.  (As an undergraduate I once had a professor who graded some students’ exams that way.  But not mine, of course!  )

Oral argument is quite another matter.  At home, on my couch, thinking about the case and penciling notes on my opposing counsel’s brief and in my notebook, it all makes perfect sense in my mind.  But when I step up to the lectern to explain all this for the judge (professor), somehow my mind doesn’t repeat all the same brilliant (heh) things it told me in the days before.  Yes, I know, I should prepare really good notes, in large bold font for easy reference, in proper order, so I’ll know exactly what to say.  I should, really.  And I meant to.  But in the days leading up to the performance, I found myself unable to work it in due to extenuating factors, I guess.  Or something.  So yeah.  I wasn’t well prepared, and it showed.

Also I felt like a tool getting up to make basically the same arguments that were already written out in my brief.  And I’d never done this sort of thing before, so even if I’d been told what to expect, it was still a new experience.  I seemed to especially have trouble getting back on track after being asked a question.  I liked being asked questions, though.  I really did.  Some questions that I expected didn’t get asked, and some that I didn’t expect, did.  Some I couldn’t answer and I had to say that the information wasn’t in my facts.

So what all this boils down to is that I need to make a habit of preparing myself better before ever speaking in front of anyone about anything of importance, but at least now I have an idea of what the whole oral argument thing is really like — an idea from personal experience, rather than mere description from someone else.  There’s just no substitute for experience.

And my writing, for all its flaws, is much better than my speaking (which isn’t saying much).  So yeah.

Coming back from winter break, settling into classes, and traveling have had me very occupied this semester.  It seems that second semester is very busy, but everyone knows what is going on so I don’t feel as lost- just busy all the time.  However, I like being very busy so maybe it might just be me feeling this way. 

 A few weeks ago I applied for the JD program here at VLS and am still waiting on whether I was admitted.  Besides waiting for this news, I have been preparing a summary judgment and oral argument for the MSEL writing class.  I have found this fairly challenging, but a great experience.  I was very nervous about how to argue my case in front of the judge (our professor) and the defendant (a felllow classmate), but everything went well after I stepped up to the podium.  This week I am fairly finished with class assignments and am preparing to go out of town to Maryville, MO.  I really like traveling while at VLS becasue it gives me a chance to get out of the town and to really focus on my homework without the distractions I seem to find around VLS and at my house.  I think I work very well in airports because I seem to get a lot of homework reading done, and when I return I am more focused on what I need to do before I travel again next.  

We are expecting a large snow storm tonight, but I am still going to do my homework because the past few weeks we have been hammered with snow, but no snow days.  So I am not counting on a snow day, and if we have one, I will be delighted to sleep in

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

Literally. And it’s physically painful. Let it snow again!

Everyone is now studying very diligently for finals. I was really really good this semester about keeping up with my reading every week, so I don’t have that much to go over before finals. I have a take home final for Energy which I pick up tomorrow, Firestone’s Environmental Law final on Monday, and my Extinctions paper due next Thursday. That’s wonderfully spaced out : D

I’m really excited about next semester! I’m doing an “independent research project” with Sarah about research and development in energy for Professor Dworkin, with the opportunity to get published! That was one of my goals, so I’m glad that is working out!

I went to an Academic Success program this morning on preparing for finals and found it extremely lacking. I asked the woman in charge if them if next semester she could prepare programs for MSELs because she only discussed things that would apply to 1Ls. However, I guess it won’t really matter next semester because the only class we’ll all have in common is the second half of Legal Writing and Research. I’ll be taking Administrative Law next semester too. Other than that, I’m still trying to figure out my schedule.

On a personal note, I’ve had kind of a rough week. Sorry if I’m in a bad mood!

VLS is usually filled with the chatting of students throughout the day in the halls, Chase Center, and around town.  Since last Friday, the chatter has deceased within the halls, Chase Center and the town.  All you hear is silence.  Everyone has their laptop open typing away, reading last cases out of their books, and concentrating on keeping their mind clear so they can excel on their exam. 

On another note, I didn’t attend the last day of class party because I went to Boston, MA for a meeting with my work-study position.  The four students on the Carbon Reduction Task Force went to meet with the NAELS President and with the Clean Air, Cool Planet Representative to discuss VLS’ efforts with their carbon footprint and carbon reduction programs.  The meeting was great, and I absolutely LOVED BOSTON!!!  I have never been to a city quite like it.  It had this charm that pulled me into it, and I am hoping that at some point I will have the opportunity to intern at a law office here, so that I can experience the city more.  One thing I didn’t like was the traffic, but I did like the fact that there was a metro system. So this meeting pushed me even harder to work towards getting an internship in Boston.

The reason why I want an internship is that I am hoping that I will be accepted into the JD program here at VLS so that I can continue my involvement with the school and broaden my horizons by being in such an ideal location- close to nature and major cities without being in them.  I am in the process right now of applying, and will be working on it over winter break.  Keep your fingers crossed because I will be!  I don’t want to leave this amazing place, the professors, the curriculum, or the staff and students that make this place special to me. 

Wish me luck on finals and the 12 hour trip to Detroit, MI…I have never experienced either of these, so it is getting a little stressful thinking about them becoming a reality.