93 Days of Summer …

Back to the summer as it is now, I find myself with a lot of freedom and time to do whatever I want. A complete 180 shift from the crazy hibernation mode you find yourself in when revising. So … I have 73 days left to relax and recuperate. But is that all you should do?

On one hand, YES. Yes it is. Those lovely readers who have just finished their A-levels (Hi there!) have experienced pain on an entire new level. No matter what anyone says about them being ‘too easy’ or ‘not as hard as they should be’ needs to, quite frankly, reassess that opinion. A-levels are two years of rigorous, intense and self-inflicted hell that makes you feel like your chance to go to University is resting on three letters.

At this point, my advice to you survivors is to take your time and for a few weeks just enjoy yourself. Eat, sleep, have fun with your friends, and eat and sleep. This is your final summer before you will – and you will – have the best year EVER.

However, I’ll be honest to anyone who wants to know what its like studying law. It is hard. (I wouldn’t say A-level hard) but its not so unbelievably easy where you can do nothing and still pass. We law students are taking a relaxing, well-deserved break as I type …

So what do I mean by hard? Well, there is a pretty much intimidating amount of reading; cases and principles you need to get your head round as well as master the art of answering law essays and problem questions.

Nevertheless, like I said before, your first year can be AMAZING. As long as you stick to, what I like to call, the balancing act. The key to the balancing act is simple. Split your life into ‘fun’ and ‘work’ (or at the moment I am doing ‘fun and future’) and when you tick off one on one side, make sure you balance it on the other side. It may sound simple and a tad stupid but you’d be surprised to see how it really does work when you need to get 300 pages read but also have three nights out on the cards. (One night out per a hundred pages???)

Therefore, in light of applying the balancing act, I think that it is important – despite it being ever so tempting – to NOT spend the whole summer sleeping, eating and sleeping.

Immediately after starting my Law degree, the Law department and Law Society were very vocal and supportive in highlighting the importance of networking, legal work experience and getting involved in a variety of areas. Particularly if you want a career in law, work experience and a brilliant CV are absolutely essential.

But don’t worry! You have plenty of time and there are plenty of things that you, and even law students can be doing from work experiences, volunteering and improving those skills, skills, and skills.

Next week and in the coming blogs, I will be explaining how you can do all of these things so come back and check it out!

But until then … enjoy the heatwave 🙂