From Your SBA President: Katie Smith

October 12, 2014

We are halfway through the semester. As students, we can take a moment to breathe before we gear up again for finals. We have a few blessed moments without quite as much planning and stress as our prior week, or as next week.

We also may use this time as self-evaluation. Were my efforts in the first part of the semester enough? Just right? What can I do better and what knowledge did I gain about a professor or an exam that is, perhaps, more helpful than the class content I painstakingly memorized? Whether you are a 1L who has just endured his or her first horrifying educational experience on what a law school exam really is, or a 3L who has repurposed midterms as an exercise in accepting defeat, this time, right now, is whatever you make of it.

I find myself fighting the constant hum of, “just one
more year, then life will begin.” I fight this notion of “real life” constantly, as it has been engrained in me since grade school. The reason I fight it, is because if real life has not yet begun, every moment up until the moment I graduate, pass the bar, and have a job, is invalidated. I put forth all the effort for my future, but neglect my now.

The future may be easier, may be more scheduled or more structured, perhaps more whimsical and carefree, or may hold a host of problems we cannot even yet imagine, but right now is still real. In fact, it is so real, that without this moment, you could not have the “real” future you intend on.

So let’s give up the, “if I can just get through this” attitude. This struggle, right now, whatever it may be, is not just a hurdle to get past to get to the finish line, it is something to be embraced, to learn from, and to make you better prepared in the future for whatever may come. And the less you worry about whatever that future is, the easier it will be to get there.