Maintaining Mental Health in Law School

If anyone has ever told you law school is easy, they are either a super genius or insane. Because it is hard. It puts you to the test. It is easy to get caught up in school and forget to take care of yourself physically and mentally. I cannot stress enough how important it is to take care of your health- particularly your mental health. Here are some tips for maintaining mental health during law school.

1. It's a marathon not a sprint
Law School lasts a solid 3 years followed by several months of bar preparation. You have to keep yourself moving forward toward that ultimate goal: a juris doctor. Starting out going balls to the wall and burning yourself out will not help you in the long run. Slow and steady is the goal; try to maintain a balance between school and life from the beginning and when you need a break, take one. Get a good nights sleep, spend time with family and friends, eat healthily, relax sometimes, find a way to destress and if you feel like you need help, get it. Good grades mean nothing if you sacrifice your mental health to get there. Just take one step at a time to get where you need to go.

2. Me-time is Necessary 
I mentioned relaxing. It is so important to take some time for yourself to relax. Maybe this is a long bath or baking a batch of cookies. Whatever settles your mind and brings you some peace, do it often. Personally, I like to bake or clean my house (just call me Monica Geller/Bing). As weird as that might be, it helps me to clear my mind and not think for a while. It also gives me something to look forward to: a sweet treat or a clean house. Sometimes I just take 30 minutes in the morning to drink my coffee and watch one of my favorite TV shows. It doesn't have to be extravagant, but finding a relaxing way to have some me-time and turn your brain off for a little while is very important when things get crazy.

3. Make Friends not Enemies
Law school is competitive. It is the nature of the beast and the type of people who pursue law. However, constantly being on edge and trying to compete with classmates is just downright exhausting. It is much easier to go to school and enjoy it because you have friends there. You are going to spend 3 years of your life around those people; it is much better to work toward making friends not enemies/competitors. Friends make you happy and happiness is much better for mental health. Law school is hard enough, don't go through it alone.

4. Don't Fake It
If things aren't going well, do not try to fake your way through it. Relax, slow down, talk to someone or get some help. Faking it and letting the pressure/stress/anxiety build will cause it to blow up later on. It is much better to address these things sooner rather than later. During my first semester exams, I tried to fake it whenever I was around my husband and put on a happy face, cook dinner and be superwoman. Around exam #3, I had a complete and utter mental breakdown in front of my poor husband who just didn't know what to do to make it better. After we talked through it and I finally stopped crying and screaming, we decided that whenever law school starting to send me over the edge, I would let him know and he could take a few things off my plate and cook dinner for a few nights or clean the house, etc. I needed to give up on being superwoman and accept that sometimes, I can't do it all. Open communication and taking care of problems earlier will be so much better in the long run.

5. Find a Healthy Way to Destress/Relax/Let off Steam
I have already talked about "me-time" and relaxing. This is a little different. During law school, often you need an outlet for all the frustrations. I know some people have healthy ways of dealing with this (exercise) and others have less healthy (alcohol or stress eating). It is much better to find a healthy way of dealing with these frustrations and to let off some steam. Personally,  I like doing Yoga or taking the pups for a long power walk. In undergrad, I loved spinning or kickboxing to get out my frustrations so I am currently begging my hubs to buy me a spin bike. Whatever works for you, a healthy outlet for stress and frustrations is always a good idea. However, many people turn to less healthy ways to deal with these frustrations; alcohol, drugs, stress-eating, etc. It may be easy to fall into those habits but they are not good for you long term. Try to find a healthy habit and start it before the stress hits. This way, you are already in a healthy routine so when you need to de-stress, you already have the habit of running/biking/swimming/yoga/etc. to blow off that steam.

6. If you need help, get it
Law schools generally have great access to mental help professionals, counseling services, etc. due to the stressful nature of law school. If you are struggling- go see someone. There is absolutely no shame in taking steps to ensure your own mental health. You do not even need to tell anyone- just do what you need to do and get yourself (hopefully) feeling better. You must put yourself first and make your mental health a priority.

Law school is really really hard. It tries you intellectually and mentally. Take care of yourself and keep your mental health in check because without that, it's going to be even harder. Make yourself a priority because no degree is worth giving up your health.

If you ever need to talk through things, my inbox is always open. I may not have all the answers but I can always listen.

Class Participation in Law School

Class participation in law school can be nerve wracking- you never want to say the wrong thing and make a fool out of yourself but you also know that participation factors into most grades so you know you need to raise your hand at some point. Undergrad was easy- usually participation wasn't a big deal and if you did participate, it was low stakes, opinion based or easily found in the homework. Law school is completely different. Professors expect a well reasoned, thoughtful contribution to class and whatever you say you better be able to back up with some black letter law or case facts... otherwise you may embarrass yourself when the professor shuts you down in front of the whole class. I know some of my friends just refuse to participate unless they are forced to via cold call and other people in my class never seem to shut up. I try to find a healthy balance and participate when I have something meaningful to say or I have a question. Still, it is a bit stressful in the beginning but there are ways to make it less scary. Here are my tips for properly participating in a law school class and making a good impression while doing it.

A Guide to Law School Outlining

If you are in law school and you have heard the word outlining 365x since starting, raise your hand. If you were 110% confused as it what the elusive "outline" was, raise it again. If you spent 1L Thanksgiving break frantically outlining and still having no clue what you were doing and then entered your first round of exams with no confidence in those 30-40 page monster outlines, raise it one more time. If you raised your hand every time, you are just like me.

I had NO idea what on earth an outline was when I started law school. I looked all over the internet, talked to all my professors, talked to 2Ls and 3Ls and yet I still did not fully understand what I was supposed to be doing. I gave it the good old college try over Thanksgiving break because prior to that, I just hadn't been able to wrap my head around what I needed to do. Come exam time, I studied the crap out of those outlines but I was not 100% confident I had everything I needed to know or had it arranged and synthesized correctly. Throughout my first semester of law school, just the word "outline" caused me to have extreme anxiety. Now that I am on to semester two, I am feeling much better about the whole process. So for anyone out there who is struggling the way I did first semester, I truly hope this helps! A good outline is a big key to law school exam success so understanding the process is key.

Choosing the Right Law School

So you have worked for years on a good undergraduate GPA, you studied yourself nearly to death to get a good LSAT score and you slaved away on an attention-grabbing personal statement for a few months... after dropping a few hundred dollars into the LSAC website, all your applications are turned in and the waiting game begins. You dream of the acceptance that you hope will come flooding in. Maybe they will and maybe they won't; the law school admissions game is ever changing and totally unpredictable. I am here to chime in on the scenario where you have been accepted to multiple schools and have to make the choice of which one you are going to dedicate your next three years of reading, writing and near death.

I was accepted to 5 of the 6 schools I applied to with scholarships to all 5. I had two full-tuition offers and two half-tuition offers. Understandably, the highest ranked school I was accepted to offered the least scholarship. It was very overwhelming to have so many great options but exciting all the same. This is how I made my decision based on the pros and cons of each of the schools I could attend. 

I Think I'll Go to Law School Today

Yes, I did start this post out with a Legally Blonde quote. Hail to the great Elle Woods, every young, blonde aspiring lawyer's unrealistic role model in hot pink. But in reality, very few aspiring lawyers decide to go to Law School in Elle Woods fashion and follow their ex-boyfriend to Harvard after scoring a 170 on the LSAT and getting a 4.0 GPA in Fashion. Most of us have been planning this for years; maybe even since we were kids. I personally have wanted to be a lawyer since I was a very little girl. I love to argue, I love to read and write and I am fascinated by all things legal. It was a natural progression to finish high school and head off to work on a Pre-Law degree for undergraduate college. It was then that I truly realized what it takes to get into Law School and become a Lawyer and boy was it a shocker. It most certainly was not as easy as Elle made it seem. I am graduating this spring, getting married this summer and I will start Law School in the fall. I have been accepted to every school I applied to thus far with a scholarship and even received two full-ride scholarships. So with no further ado, here is what tips I have for preparing yourself to get into Law School throughout your undergraduate years.