In Between Law School and Life

Pause, if you must.

Stress, exhaustion, pressure, headaches and everything analogous to these are the giants a law student have to face. Not to mention the piled-up readings and backlogs, as well as the cases to master and the doctrines to take heart. The list continues, subjective of one’s work and other life tasks. I, for one, think it was drowning and while we deal with them every day, it becomes harder to resurface. When law school demands too much, to the point that 24 hours seem like 24 seconds, how does one find rest? In between law school and life, which should be given more portion of one’s time?

If you have a definite answer to that, I admire you. To me, it’s still an enigma, and perhaps I share the same sentiments with many. With Midterms coming up, it seems like the weight of the load and the time available are mismatched. But then, like an answered prayer, we were given a week-long academic break. We were happy, finally, we can have a break. What does a break mean, anyway? I googled, and I was shown with a list of synonyms: cease, halt, discontinue, rest, desist. Among these, I’d like to settle with rest, something we disregard and sometimes, we equate with unproductivity. I guess it was the pressure that comes with the asymmetrical balance between time and backlogs that makes us feel guilty of rest. Should we be? I say no. There’s nothing to be guilty about having time for yourself, even the most beautiful flowers need time to flourish. Even the smartest brains in history have their fair share of hiatus.

This time, a week of being academic-free (somehow) gave us a pause to recharge. We were given spares for other activities that will re-motivate us, days to spend nights for longer family dinners or take-outs with loved ones. Study sessions with friends had longer breaks to talk about life and temporarily, we adjusted our sleeping schedules, adding few hours to the usual three or four. Our minds got more room for thoughts, or at least for a while. Now that it’s over, I hope you have no regrets on how you spent it. Be it as simple as having one lazy day to just lie in bed or as memorable as a family beach trip. I pray the given academic break let you pause from law school rush. I hope that through it, you’ve restored your enthusiasm and with it, you’re now more prepared, more eager, more persistent and more serious with the coming midterms and everything after that. It’s still a long road ahead, love.

I hope you rested, and that you rested well.

Now we hustle again.