Textbooks, Orientation, and Stuff

The countdown is on! I have officially ONE WEEK left before I leave for law school.

I've bounced between feelings of nervousness and excitement pretty much all summer. I've heard from law students that feeling like you are in over your head is normal for a 0L (mostly because you pretty much are in over your head). At times, I wondered what the heck I was thinking when I applied to law school. At other times, I knew without a doubt that law school was the right decision for me. Up and down. Like a crazy roller coaster that you force yourself to ride just so you can say you did it.

With only a few more days to go before orientation, I am feeling 70% excited and 30% nervous. I'm excited to meet all my new classmates, to live in a new town, to attend a GREAT university, and to finally begin a program that will teach me a career. I like that I will be learning a definite set of skills that will translate into a job upon graduation.

College was great fun and I learned a lot, but I realize now that half the majors available for study really don't pave the way into any definite career. If you're just starting out in college, make sure you double major. Study what you love, but also study something that can eventually lead to a paycheck one day. I picked smartly without even really knowing what I was doing - I have an education degree with a teacher's license, and I also have a history degree - which led to law school.

In other news, my apartment is totally set up. I LOVE it! My Mom and I decorated it completely from secondhand stores. I swear, Design on a Dime needs to do an episode covering my apartment. Everything from the silverware (a 60 piece set of Oneida silverware which I snagged for 12 bucks from a retiring caterer at a garage sale) to my vintage Chromcraft kitchen table with 6 chairs which I bought from Habitat ReStore for 40 bucks (and sells for hundreds in antique stores) was bought secondhand. It was addicting....you never really knew what you were going to find!

The only new thing in my apartment is my 32" HDTV. And some computer stuff. Oh yah. Be jealous. :)

Anywho, I read my first case from one of my textbooks!! I couldn't help myself. Specifically, it was Johnson v. M'Intosh (1823), and it was in my Property casebook. Oddly enough, I found it to be a very interesting read. And I understood it. (Or, at least, I think I did.) The plaintiff in the case said that he had the rights to a certain piece of property because it was deeded to him by the Indian chiefs of the region. Another man claimed he owned the property because the government deeded it to him (even though it was at a later date than the plaintiff). The court ruled in favor of the defendant because precedent dictated that Indians were allowed to occupy their land, but they were not allowed to sell or deed their land to anyone. European precedence robbed Indians of their sovereignty. Indians could live off the land and had a right to live on the land, but they were not ultimately in control. It's acquisition by discovery...when a person discovers a land not previously known by Christian peoples, they are the rightful owners of that land.

That's a tough decision to swallow, but it's amazing to see how much history and society can influence the law. Am I sensing a future in real estate law? Hmm.... ;)