So Easily Forgotten

School hasn't even begun yet, and I'm already so caught up in the fear of "doing well" that I forgot what drew me here to begin with. Some things to keep in mind when the going gets tough:

• You're studying law because you love it. Beyond the career aspirations, beyond the grades, this stuff fascinates you. Those long 13+ hour days in the legal library reading law review articles to write 30 page papers on civil liberties and judicial decision making were some of the best days of your life. 
• You love to be busy. If you cannot say you studied or worked a full day without stopping, you feel unaccomplished. Some call you a workaholic, but this is what will get you through.
• You're moving to a new town, with new people, and finally studying something new. Novel is wonderful and exciting. As long as it isn't too distracting, this will improve your mood.
• You have a wonderful and supportive love-friend who you will, after 9 months now, finally be much closer to. When all else fails, he will only be an hour away. If he was able to help from over 1400 miles, a 50 minute drive will be nothing.
• Was dich nicht umbringt, macht dich starker.

Never forget the love of learning that will pull you through this. Focus on testing well, sure. But if you remember that you truly love studying the law, that you enjoy every minute of those long hours, that you actually want to absorb every bit of it for personal fulfillment rather than some arbitrary grade, then, and only then, will you truly have mastered the concepts. Test well, and the grades will follow.

With that said, I've scratched LEEWS and Delaney from my pre-law school prep. I'll read GTM since everyone recommends it, but I think I'm much more suited reading a book about improving your legal writing, or the theoretical policy concepts behind the law. Something I'll actually enjoy, but is a little more light-hearted than actual substantive casebooks.