Mixed Messages

I've got a couple of weeks of work left, and a lunch meeting for feedback with my managing partner this Friday. Word on the street (via associates) is that they love my work and want me to come back, which is excellent, but I'll believe it when I hear it from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

Despite my love affair with work, school is creeping back into my life. It looks like the trends from last year will continue for BT, and 2L will be filled with ambiguous feedback, at best.

The results from the journal competition came back, and per normal, I'm disappointed on one hand, relieved on the other, and resting in limbo. More than anything, I'm suffering from the winded shock that arrives in your chest when you convince yourself that you are good enough for something and anticipate its occurrence only to find you were wrong. I didn't get an invitation to law review or the tech-focused journal. I suspect my LWR grade takes a decent chunk of the blame for that, which is a bummer since my moot court brief won accolades. Oh well. Hindsight I'll offer to 1Ls: if you want to join a particular journal with grades that are only slightly above average, then you probably have to put in the time and effort for both LWR and moot court, even if they aren't GPA courses.

The other side of the coin is that I did get an invitation to another journal, which covers topics that interest me.

Benefits: exposure to a cool area of law that I wouldn't otherwise get to know. Longer release cycles for the journals (less stress and a semblance of a life while balancing 2L, journal, and moot court). Exposure to tons of legal writing, citing, and editing, which, apparently, I need.

Drawbacks: if journals are mainly resume fodder, all this work will be focused in an area where I don't intend to practice. If my goal really is to have the highest possible quality of life while obtaining a great education, perhaps spreading myself even thinner by joining this journal isn't the best decision. Maybe I'd be better served by writing a note on my own and doing my best to get it published. I'll mull it over but chances are, I'll just join the journal and enjoy myself immensely.

In other news, the moot court ramp up has begun. Meetings and work assignment will occur this week. We've got a huge brief to write in a very short time.

Add a quickly approaching job fair (may just wear the old suit, running out of time to buy a new one), OCI research and bidding, mucking with the old resume, finishing up my work before I leave the firm, booked weekends from now 'til after Labor day and I'm swamped.

School hasn't even started.