Reflection

Weekly Report 01/20/2018 to 02/12/2018

This week, I had the opportunity to both sit in on the criminal misdemeanor docket and observe my mentor in probate court with a client. Getting to see my mentor in action helped me to piece together the whole process of administering trusts and wills, since I already had the chance to watch my mentor go through the initial process of going through documents with a different client. While this was interesting to see the whole process cohesively, I was more intrigued to sit in on the criminal docket. Seeing Judge Barnett Walker run the court with such strong authority and yet compassion for the defendants was so interesting, and it reminded me of why I became so intrigued by the law in the first place. I was surprised by how curious I grew when listening to just short snippets of each case and would love to have the opportunity to sit in on a trial at some point to perhaps see if I should be focusing more on criminal law before ruling all legal practices out entirely. I think that I have realized that the law is still a huge interest of mine that I will always love to learn more about, but it is not my true passion or calling.

These past two weeks I have spent a lot of time reflecting on, quite frankly, everything. My goal for twenty-eighteen was to focus on my grades and standardized test scores first and put my extracurriculars second, since my defining numbers will be submitted to colleges at the end of the semester. I am realizing, though, that as I have begun to do this, I am growing more overwhelmed by my course load and trying to balance that with all of the other pressures of junior year.

I previously discussed all of this in my last weekly report, focusing on my loss of direction as being a major source of my stress. Although it is frustrating and worrying to know that I have already made decisions with my courses based on the assumption that I would follow a law path, I have actually found a bit of consolation in realizing that this is not my passion. Seeing how beneficial just a few months in ISM has been in helping me to discover that this is not the career path for me has put things into perspective and helped me to realize that this is only one year of my life, not all of it. I am so grateful to have learned fairly quickly that this is not meant for me, and I am hoping to use this experience to shape how I take on my future. Next year, I want to explore more arts related classes and take courses which I love and enjoy, not ones to simply get the GPA boost. Obviously it has been helpful to have taken five AP and two other weighted classes this year, but my mental health has suffered and my actual interest in these subjects is lacking, making it more difficult to remain engaged and eager to learn. This year has been a great learning experience for me and I hope to use all of these difficult times as prompts to make changes to my schedule and workload in the following year.