That’s a Wrap!
Year 1 is complete of my law school experience and upon finishing my exams 5 weeks ago this was me (see above).
I’ve never been so happy to be finished school for summer break. This year was hard. I severely underestimated the transition back to student life and campus life. I had pictured something along the lines of my on-campus experience at Dalhousie University. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Living in residence was loud 24/7, the food was disgusting, and sleeping on the floor would have been more comfortable than the mattress I had to sleep on.
I wholeheartedly believe that your physical surroundings make a HUGE impact on your ability to excel and cope with any mental challenges. Which is why for next year I’ve secured my own place, off-campus. If I had to choose between powdered eggs, canned beans, and deep fried everything for breakfast for any longer, I seriously would have snapped. Likewise for dinner, I longed for fresh fruits and veggies. For a self-proclaimed foodie and someone whose diet consists mostly of fruits and veggies I was left hungry and bored with my food choices.
It’s easy to say “if you didn’t like it, order in or buy your own food” but 1) I had nowhere to store fresh foods and 2) eating out all the time is expensive! Anyway, I’m happy to say that I never have to encounter UK residence food again. Also, for those of you complaining about the food in residence at your Canadian universities I can honestly say that you have no idea how good you have it. I certainly took my residence experience at Dal for granted.
The course itself is good. I enjoyed most of my modules. I had to adjust to new way of learning though. The course is heavily based on self-teaching, compared to my undergrad experience of 3 lectures a week plus seminar for most of my modules and required readings to support what was discussed in lectures. For this course, it was the opposite. The lectures were to support what we had read and provide for further discussion in seminar. We also had multiple different lecturers for each module throughout the year which I didn’t really like because it lacked consistency.
Overall, I happy with how first year went but I will definitely be making adjustments for how I approach next year in terms of my study habits and note taking. I guess that’s part of it though. It’s a learning process in itself and there are going to be growing pains. In this transition back to student life I further developed my ability to be flexible and my resiliency. Adding the experience of this transition to the adjustments that accompany an international move, I’m quite proud of myself and my accomplishments thus far. It can only get brighter from here!