During one of our classes, our professor posed a question regarding a subject that we had taken just a semester ago. She looked at us to search for a face willing to answer, but everyone just gave hesitant looks.
I could tell she looked disappointed. Deep inside, I was disappointed in myself.
“You already know this. There should be no hesitation,” she told us.
But that’s just the thing, isn’t it? We learn important doctrines of law every day in law school, yet we end up forgetting them either because we didn’t pay much attention or we were cramming our way towards a passing grade.
I did both. I still am doing both.
I took up law because it was fun for me. I don’t really know if I want to be a practicing lawyer someday. I took it up just because I wanted to know my rights so I could be more sure of my next moves. I’ve already been in law school for almost two years, but I still don’t see myself as someone who would make her living representing clients.
Somewhere along the road, legal education became more of a task. I used to be so energetic after classes. “I learned a lot!” I would say to my sister before I give her a lengthy lecture about our lesson for the day.
But as the months went by, it became more about the grades. It didn’t matter if I learned the concepts last-minute. I passed the tests, anyway. With my background in engineering, I have the confidence of walking into an exam room with only 4 to 6 hours of serious studying. As a result, I’d forget everything that I learned as easily as I had acquired them.
I know this is not enough.
Every day is a mental battle to sit down and do the readings. The fun has been completely sucked out of it. I no longer read a case and enjoy its juicy contents. It had all become about whether this will be asked during recitations or if it will appear in the exam.
This makes it easy to forget.
It's a Ping Thing 