The 1L Online Experience
Note that this post was originally published on Zheng’s personal blog on Medium. Check out her blog here: https://zhengyiong.medium.com/
It’s been 8 months since I started 1L entirely online. To say that this experience has been surreal is an understatement. After my final exams in April, I took some time off to rest and reflect on my experience and plan my next steps for the summer and going into 2L.
This post will be part 1 of a summary of my thoughts surrounding each period I encountered this last year - stick around to find out how this law student REALLY felt about online learning!
From orientation week, to 1L recruit, networking, exams, and clubs, and on top of juggling life in general, so much happened so quickly that I cannot believe it’s already a month into the summer!
I started blogging with the purpose of documenting my personal experience with 1L online and I’m so glad I did. The last year had been so eventful and having my thoughts organized into neat little posts really helped me look back and think about my milestones and achievements.
Uncertainty
Going into 1L, myself and many others (I’m sure!) were uncertain about how things would pan out.
In September, case numbers were increasing everyday. BC went into a second wave of outbreaks and things were looking bleak.
I was focused on trying to get a hang of the 1L experience. I joined clubs I was interested in (and even helped start one!), as well as tried involving myself in the legal community in Vancouver - I felt that having friends closer to home would make my experience a little less lonely.
It was difficult attending classes online, but I was so excited that I was in law school and that made the most out of it.
Once I was back in school mode, I went back to keeping track of my life in weeks. I saw each semester as a weekly countdown to exams…
Week 1: I’m excited to be here!
Week 3: these 7:30 AM classes are not my favourite.
Week 8: What did we learn in week 2?
It felt like the weeks were flying by and I was struggling to hang onto this wild ride.
I just wanted to enjoy and be present in the moment!
After all, isn’t 1L supposed to be this grand experience of learning the law, making new friends, attending fancy networking events (with food and drinks!) hosted by the big firms? Even without the in-person experience, I still wanted to enjoy the time spent in my formative 1L year.
My year could especially attribute our lack of knowledge to the newness of everything, especially having to learn everything online due to the pandemic. 1L was truly the time for us to not know anything, and for that to be ok!
It ended up being a really lonely time for me. As much as I tried to involve myself in clubs and online social activities, the ability to truly connect with people online was severely diminished by virtue of being in an online environment. I kept myself going by reminding myself that this was only temporary, that things would get back to normal soon, people would get vaccinated, and soon, all this would just be a distant memory.
On and on each week went by until midterms finally rolled around in December.
Midterms were terrifying
1L isn’t normally a walk in the park, and the pandemic only exacerbated its difficulties for my class. I was truly terrified for exams - the first test of my academic abilities in law school.
Law students have always had at least part of our identity tied to our academic achievements. Most of us were top of the class in high school and went on to excel in our undergraduate degrees. We all go to law school to challenge ourselves and many of us see it as a ticket to enter into the upper echelons of society.
Bottom line: everyone understands that grades play a big role in the 2L recruit.
Here in Calgary, we also have a focused 1L recruit which contributed to our higher stress levels. It felt like everything hinged on our midterm grades.
I was extremely stressed and nervous. I completed my CANs a full week and a half before exams and started outlining soon after. However, I felt lost and overwhelmed. We had 6 exams in a span of 2 weeks. I felt that I studied so much yet was not prepared enough for any of the exams.
Overall I would rate my experience a solid 5/10 taking into account the effort I put into studying for the exams.
I was extremely relieved when I wrote my final exam, yet immediately after I submitted it, dread started to seep into my mind as the waiting game for grades began…
Stay tuned for part 2!
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