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High Wire Balancing Act

By Tyler Larsen

Law school is a high wire balancing act. What are you balancing? Time, Relationships, and Mental Health! Keeping it all together is tough.

Time is the one element that you cannot control. You can control what you do during the 24 hours of each day but you cannot make time slow down. You can control how you time spent during the week but once time has passed it's gone forever. I know, I state the obvious but each week we spend time studying, hanging out with family or friends, and watching tv (maybe). It's tough to balance the activities of studying with fostering relationships.

Relationships! Law students are people too. We have to maintain those human connections that are important to us. Recently I spent time with a law student who is married and asked him about his relationship with his wife. His wife like's it best when he studies at home. He may not even converse with his wife but as long as he is home she has a better time. I have had the same conversation with my wife. Family members and friends make complaints to us about how, we as law students, don't spend time with them anymore. Sorry guys, but it's not that our families are less important. Law school requires this extra effort of us at this time.

My list starts out Law School, Family, sleep, and maybe a little me time at the end. When you spend 60 or more hours a week studying, the time left over must be split among those remaining priorities. that does not leave a lot of time for family or yourself. Spend time with those that are important to you. The priority list does not mean that your family is not important, it is simple reality that has to be worked with during the 3 years of law school.

Full post as published by Law School Survivor on February 13, 2008 (boomark / email).