Thanksgiving... Forum

[Pearalegal]

Small problem is there isn't a library that's open during Thanksgiving weekend...

OH MY GOD

Barnes and Nobles, a restaurant, a coffee shop, having a family that respects that you need to close a door and study behind it, a friend's place, pick one of a billion options.

And if you absolutely must study in a library and there are no libraries open over those dates then I guess you're effed anyways, because your school library won't be opened either.

[macattaq]

Actually, there are valid points from both sides. I went to my in-law's house in CA and locked myself in a room for most of each day. It worked very well but I was still behind when I got back. You guys honestly have no idea how much time getting your crap together and memorized before finals takes. Not to mention your LRW memo and whatnot. Time is not on your side and you will feel time slipping away from you every day leading up to finals, topping off with a miraculous "stay up until 4 a.m., set alarm for 5:30 a.m., study while walking to school" crapfest.

Just allocate your time and like Pear said, go to a library to work on outlines or find a quiet place to lock yourself up. I will say though that it is hard to concentrate when you see everybody else having a great time. Think Bart Simpson in the episode where he is trying to pass 4th grade or whatever when everyone was outside making snowmen and stuff.

On this note, you could seriously front load your schedule at the start of the semester, and act with the knowledge that you are going home for the break. That way, when the break comes, if you can manage to get say...a week ahead, then you could spend time just dicking around over break. On the other hand, as A'nold mentioned, you'll probably be outlining around Thanksgiving, but if you do front load, then you could just do that for an hour or two each day while Gramps is telling war stories or whatever.

[zeth006]

Small problem is there isn't a library that's open during Thanksgiving weekend...

OH MY GOD

Barnes and Nobles, a restaurant, a coffee shop, having a family that respects that you need to close a door and study behind it, a friend's place, pick one of a billion options.

And if you absolutely must study in a library and there are no libraries open over those dates then I guess you're effed anyways, because your school library won't be opened either.

[go4hls]

Actually, there are valid points from both sides. I went to my in-law's house in CA and locked myself in a room for most of each day. It worked very well but I was still behind when I got back. You guys honestly have no idea how much time getting your crap together and memorized before finals takes. Not to mention your LRW memo and whatnot. Time is not on your side and you will feel time slipping away from you every day leading up to finals, topping off with a miraculous "stay up until 4 a.m., set alarm for 5:30 a.m., study while walking to school" crapfest.

Just allocate your time and like Pear said, go to a library to work on outlines or find a quiet place to lock yourself up. I will say though that it is hard to concentrate when you see everybody else having a great time. Think Bart Simpson in the episode where he is trying to pass 4th grade or whatever when everyone was outside making snowmen and stuff.

This is the kind of thing that makes me worried about 1L year.

[Pearalegal]

<<Why so serious pic that freaks me out>>

Haha, sorry. It was a combination of not being able to sleep and frustration with this entire topic.

1L is a lot of work, but its not some catastrophe of reading that will make you need to take a time out from life. Maybe I'll be eating my words, but I base all this on the helpful and countless hours of advice from my attorneys I've worked with for two years. The general consensus is that its not actually the work that will overwhelm you--its the stress and losing perspective. I think anyone with work experience should be able to do so.

As a biglaw paralegal during busy litigation times, I've slept in my office, I've worked throughout the entire weekend several weekends in a row, I've assisted with endless trail prep, I've been called in on various cases that I wasn't originally assigned to when they spiral out of control.

I'm sure a lot of 0Ls have had just as demanding job experiences...I'd think that being able to have a life (which I did, and I assume they did) in such unpredictable circumstances has prepared us all to be able to be able to go home for a big meal when you're dealing with a workload as predictable and planned out as a semester.

[blzrchick2]

I am also pretty baffled at most of the responses on this thread. I finished in the top of my class 1L year and I attribute that to balance. I went and played soccer 3 nights a week no matter if it was the night before a final or any other stressful time. I spent every Thanksgiving with my family. You do NOT need to spend 10 hours a day during Thanksgiving weekend finishing outlines. You're not a prisoner of law school, you're a law student.

Unless you hate Thanksgiving or hate your family, I'd say it's pretty important to be with them during the holiday and remember that law school is not your entire existence. If you can't get a few hours of work done while at home then you probably have bigger issues. Go home. Eat turkey. Relax.

[rbgrocio]

I used that time to finish outlines and take practice tests. I only took off for Thanksgiving dinner with the family. Probably overkill but it was all I could handle at the time.

I studied on Thanksgiving until like 6 p.m. when I went to eat dinner with the family. The next day? back to work! Since OP leaves away from family, the diligent thing to do would probably be don't go!

[ninano]

This topic is so timely....I was honestly thinking of flying home Wednesday nite/Thursday morning and coming back Sunday evening. Thanks to these postings, that was a little naive. I most likely will go home (I lived abroad for 3 years and missed consecutive Thanksgiving dinners with family) but probably will come back Saturday with leftovers to study back on campus.

[rbgrocio]

Actually, there are valid points from both sides. I went to my in-law's house in CA and locked myself in a room for most of each day. It worked very well but I was still behind when I got back. You guys honestly have no idea how much time getting your crap together and memorized before finals takes. Not to mention your LRW memo and whatnot. Time is not on your side and you will feel time slipping away from you every day leading up to finals, topping off with a miraculous "stay up until 4 a.m., set alarm for 5:30 a.m., study while walking to school" crapfest.

Just allocate your time and like Pear said, go to a library to work on outlines or find a quiet place to lock yourself up. I will say though that it is hard to concentrate when you see everybody else having a great time. Think Bart Simpson in the episode where he is trying to pass 4th grade or whatever when everyone was outside making snowmen and stuff.

This is the kind of thing that makes me worried about 1L year.

I never did any of that. I only stayed up until 2 a.m. twice, and woke up at 8 a.m. the following day. If you plan accordingly all year round, there is no need to kill yourself the week of finals. Of course, by this, I mean that you should only have to study about 14 hours a day....

[BunkMoreland]

don't you guys get a ten day break around that time? You can frontload the first part of that week with studying and then relax over the weekend. It's no biggie.