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Pick a Passion: Overcoming Guilt While Providing Support
Once you start working as an attorney, you’re typically bombarded with requests for fundraisers, events, etc. helping support one cause after another. The good news is that, student debt aside, many of us eventually find ourselves able to participate in traditional forms of philanthropy. The bad news is that being more aware of problems can lead to you feeling overwhelmed with your ability to help. As women of color, we may feel more empathy to seeing these injustices because we know first-hand how unfair, mean, and biased the system can be to others—many of these causes are not just something we hear of, third-hand, but rather real problems our family…
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Don’t Do It: Things to Avoid After Law School Finals
One of the biggest difference between undergrad and law school is that in undergrad, you go into finals with a basic idea of what your grade will be in that class. In law school, all of your grade is dependent on this one final exam, and you have little idea what your grade will be or even if you are truly understanding the concepts of the course. So unlike undergrad, where you can turn in your bluebook and move on–law school finals stick with you for a long time. There’s always a little bug in your head reminding you that grades are coming and it makes you worry about how you…
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Cultural Conflict: Bridging the Family Gap
For those of us who are children of immigrants, or easily assimilated as immigrant children, there can be a feeling of disconnect between you and your family. It usually starts with a language barrier where we slowly find ourselves unable to communicate fully with our loved ones. Then the gap widens as you advance through school because the system is foreign to most of our parents*. The higher we go, the less likely our family is able to teach us or help us navigate the system. This is also often true for even those of us with parents who have professional degrees from other countries. It can be emotionally draining to feel…
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Love & Self Care
Self-care is such a difficult concept because it’s encouraged so much, but there’s such a stigma when attorneys actually state that they need a moment of rest. I’ve cited a million times how attorneys have higher levels of depression and alcoholism than most other professions. Couple that with the high rates of diabetes, heart disease, and other illnesses that Latinos face and many of us are putting ourselves on a path that will be difficult to overcome. What if instead, we knew going into our profession the importance of taking care of our mind and bodies so that we didn’t allow the stressors of the profession to impact us so…
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Get Rid of Stress in Ten Minutes or Less
If you follow me on Snapchat (and you should!) you saw that this week I had a crappy morning-so bad that I went off my regular tea-only schedule and bought myself a latte to feel better. I know that indulging in bad calories is probably not the greatest thing to do, but sometimes we just need the comfort, tu sabes. Anyway, I had a semi-hectic week (it got a lot better), but when combined with the anxious vibes I could feel from the soon-to-be attorneys studying for the February Bar, I found myself a little stressed out. It made me think that it would be a good idea to share…
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What Happens When You Hate Law School?
There’s a (completely not true) saying that people either loved law school and hate practicing or they hated law school but love practicing. Obviously, the winning combo is the latter because you do that for longer. But having to do something that you seriously dislike for three years really takes its toll. And law school often has it’s highs and lows, so there are moments you’re loving it and times you really believe you’ve made a huge mistake. That kind of love/hate relationship is super common, but then there are also situations for people where there aren’t many highs with constant lows. You get to a point where you seriously consider…
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Planning Ahead for the New Semester
I am so eager to get back into the rhythm of my normal. The last three months of 2015 were kind of out of control-I easily worked every weekend to meet some deadline/research. It was really out of the ordinary for my job. Thankfully, I think things are settling down and getting back to normal. Having said that, I really like the beginning of the year. It’s totally cliché, but the idea of starting fresh just really appeals to me. Maybe because I went to school for a million years so I’m still used to starting fresh in January. For those that are actually in school and starting a new…
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Life After Law School Finals
This is re-post from last year, but it still holds true! Enjoy your break! And for those of us practicing, take advantage of the season to indulge in self-care! Seven years ago, my husband (then boyfriend) and I celebrated our first Christmas together after finishing my first semester of law school. I recently stumbled across a picture of our tree: I have to smile at the sparseness of the apartment; the newspaper wrapping paper; and the window treatments because the apartment was always freezing! The struggle was real! Aside from upping my decoration game, this picture reminds of the difficulties of that first semester. During the midst of my first…
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Final Freakouts: Handling Mishaps during Law School Finals
If you’re in the midst of studying for finals, you’re likely stressed (ha!) so I don’t want to add more to your plate, but I want to give a one small warning about finals. Not the study time leading up to the actual exam, but the day of and the (minimal) possibility of an emergency during the exam. An emergency meaning you have a mini-freakout because something goes awry. What would you do if your software exam crashes and you suddenly can’t type your exam? What if the person next to you has a cold that means they’re constantly making distracting noises? It may seem like overkill, but there is…
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Creating Good Habits in Law School
I’ve never felt a constantly physical ill feeling until I started law school and neared finals. It felt like such a do or die period and I was so 1) completely ignorant of the process and 2) incredibly nervous. I started having a lot of physical symptoms (b/c that’s how I manifest stress) that resulted in making a lot of bad choices because those brought instant-gratification and would quell my stress. But of course, that became a vicious cycle because often that bad choice would eventually make me feel worse–and did little to help my stress. I’m sure many of you who are starting finals are beginning to feel that…