All I have is the phrase "I have a foolproof plan". Beyond that, I'm wide open.

Well school has begun again. Bleh. My classes are really hard, so hopefully I'll be up to the challenge. I feel like the professors expect more of us this semester, which makes sense I guess. Still, I spend most of class hoping they don't call on me. So far so good, but it's only Tuesday....

Today I had three classes, so I just took all my books with me to campus. The idea was to study in between classes. Do you have any idea how much four law textbooks weigh? I don't either, but it's a lot. I was waiting for the light to change so I could cross the street, and I thought for sure my backpack was going to rip through my shoulder and split my body in two. I feel like I should never do that again. Tomorrow I also have three classes, so I'll have to think up a different way to study without causing my shoulders to implode on the rest of my body. Seriously, I had to lean forward to prevent myself from falling over. Yikes.

Anyway, my Constitutional Law class is pretty interesting. My teacher is totally crazy, but I think he'll be fun. He seems pretty chill. It's a hard class though. I keep hoping it'll get easier.... I have that class every day but Friday, so I've been doing a lot of reading in that book. We've been talking about judicial review and we're supposed to start discussing standing (whether you have a valid reason to be in court) tomorrow. I did do my reading, briefed my cases and everything, but I think I will still hope he doesn't call on me tomorrow.

My property class is... good? I should probably not be so candid on my blog. The cases we've been reading so far are all from the 17 and 1800's. They're kind of interesting, although some of them I don't really get. Why would you sue someone over a fox? Granted, it's obnoxious for someone to kill a fox you've been chasing all day, but sue them? Some people's kids. Anyway, that class is going to be very hard. I really hope he doesn't call on me, or if he ever does, he just asks me for a definition. I'm pretty handy with a dictionary.

Intro to Lawyering this semester is going to be crazy. We have to write a fact analysis, a persuasive memo, an appellate brief, and then do an oral argument in front of judges (real judges, which just makes it more terrifying). We even get to do a mock negotiation session. That will be kind of fun. It's going to be a lot of work though, for sure. We have more freedom this semester to do our own research instead of using the cases Professor Queenan gave us. That means we get to make our own arguments. Hopefully I don't turn out to be dumb. That will be really embarrassing.

I've only gone to my criminal law class once so far. Mostly we talked about legal and sociological theories of punishment. We read this awful case where these guys kill the cabin boy and eat him to survive (they're shipwrecked and out of food). I realized I am a retributivist because I thought they should go to jail even though it was unlikely to serve as any kind of deterrence, or reform, or anything like that. Then I felt bad because if you're going to spend all that money and time to punish someone, it should probably serve a purpose for the punishee and society. Still, they ate the cabin boy! I suppose that's the classic societal-internal struggle regarding punishment. We're supposed to continue our discussion next class. Should be interesting.

Anyway, my classes are hard, but I think I'm going to enjoy them. This semester's going to be pretty crazy. I have one more class than I did last semester, and the teachers all expect us to know what we're doing now.... Anyway, I plan to spend a large majority of my time this semester in the library. I also plan to start outlining much earlier then, you know, the week before finals. So hopefully all that extra studying will help my brain to keep up with my professors brains. Here's hoping!