However, contrary to everyone telling me the first few weeks may affirm those fears, I was proven wrong. I finally found a place where I feel like I am flourishing. I enjoy lectures. I push myself outside my comfort zone by participating in lectures and connecting with the Professors. I stay ahead of the readings.

Though I believe I am doing well, my family members may not agree. That is because I am devoting all my time to Law School. Instead of taking a day or few hours off, I study. The source of this issue is wanting to be ahead.

Hence, I think the biggest goal for me is to maintain a strong work-life balance. I need to talk to myself as if I was talking to my best friend. I need to remember with the work I am putting in, I can take a break and give some attention to things I love.

To change my current habits, I can dedicate 9:30 pm-11 pm on weekdays and a few hours on the weekend to do something I enjoy. This way I can start making active changes.

Lastly, when it comes to friendships, I fortunately have found a few students. They make me feel comfortable voicing my concerns, they keep me grounded when stressed, and they provide an outlet to laugh about all the work. All in all, they are a strong support system and will always have my back. That is what I want out of relationships in Law School, people who are there for you versus people who are just trying to sabotage your success for their own.

As I continue my Law School journey, I will remember to seek out friends and professors who will be a support system and to bring active change to my work-life balance to ensure a more rewarding school year.

In terms of learning, I understand self love to be that when learning new concepts, do it to expand your knowledge and sharpen your skills your person (you) can be the best in their field. Additionally, when your person (you) makes mistakes be forgiving and be optimistic about the growth that you have had from the start of the semester, and how it can only get better from here. It teaches me to take those failures and those tips on improvement to make my person (me) better in a professional area that will contribute to a successful career.

In terms of comparing myself to others, I interpreted the concept of self love to mean don't compare yourself to what others are doing professionally in law school. Instead focus on your goals, priorities, and what works best for you because making your life the best it can be is the goal. The goal is not to focus on others. This will help me in pursuing academic club opportunities and practice areas that excite me, versus doing something just because someone recommended it to me or something that everyone is doing. It is me prioritizing the passions that brought me to law school versus fulfilling what other people want of me.

With Legal Professional Values, honesty is key. Learning that honesty on how I am feeling instead of acting like everything is fine, will allow me to address the root of why I may be feeling a certain way and help me to correspondingly implement habits that will help me from burning. That includes taking a few hours or days off on the weekend, or talking to professors or support groups I have built. Being honest and building healthy habits to rectify the issues for my person (me) will ensure that their journey to the best life remains steadfast without any issues.

The one thing that paralyzes me is fear. Being fearful about how I may not be good enough after seeing my grade was not where I wanted it to be in this class, how I may mess up a cold call or ask a question which my classmates may think is dumb holds me back in the process of my learning. When I am so caught up in what others think of me or my competence, it prevents me from taking opportunities to expand my knowledge from asking questions to participating in discussions to focusing on materials.

In order to combat this, anytime I am faced with fear, I need to control my thoughts before I let the emotions paralyze me as we learned in Inns. If I face fear about being cold called, I will take a moment and think of phrasing the possibility in a positive way such as this is a great opportunity to test my knowledge on the material. Even if I am unable to do so, after going through the emotions being cold called creates, I can take those steps to reframe the possibility in a positive light as mentioned above, helping me to not linger in those negative steps.

To combat that, I stayed at home for the year, knowing I could be with my mom. She is the one person in my life that no matter how stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed I am, she will always be there for me. She pushes me to be a stronger person. She prevents me from getting emotional over small things that affect my mood. She comforts me, and makes me think in a positive mindset when things go wrong. Without her, I would never have made it this far, nor would I be this calm in law school. I truly am so thankful for everything I have become. 

One example to illustrate just how much of a positive effect she has on me was this past weekend. I was scrolling through Linkedin, seeing a lot of people getting jobs or hearing back from internships. Though I know it is early in the semester, seeing that filled me with feelings of failure and the want to give up on trying to apply for positions thinking it was useless. My mom was the one who wiped my tears, and told me how early it was to hear back from somewhere. She reassured me that though it may take some time I will hear back and start getting interviews. She also pushed me to keep applying in the upcoming weeks as it never hurts. She told me positive messages of all the things I have done which I should be proud of, and how whatever happens she will continue being proud as being in law school is such a big step. 

Additionally, the use of ethos, a technique we learned in class, was powerful by the party who was representing the parents who were having difficulties adopting the child due to the legal hurdles of a strong presumption against Separating Native Americans from their tribes. The ability of the attorneys to humanize the parents, left me as an audience member fully convinced that it was irrational to prevent these parents from adopting the child. 

In regards to whether there was a clear winner, the judges had a hard time coming to a decision but in the end thought that it was the defense versus the petitioners who won. The strongest point was their brief, Justice Jackson noted. It was interesting, as though their oral arguments were impressive it was the comprehensive brief which got into details about the cultural elements at play which really stood out. 

Ultimately, having seen this competition really taught me the importance of first being positive throughout leaving a positive impression on the judges and having a central theme which is tied in throughout all aspects of the brief combined with the argument to ensure a comprehensive case is being presented. Moreover, addressing the judges by their last name versus honor, being able to stay on task of the important points that need to be conveyed while still answering their interjecting questions, and knowing when to make concessions so it doesn’t negatively affect your time will make me a better advocate for the oral argument at the appellate level. 

The second case I listened to was Nadine Pellegrino et al v TSA , case number 15-3047, and hearing date as February 20th, 2019. The argument style of the petitioner and opposing side was rather similar, it was clear concise argumentation, which I liked as it made it easy to follow. The court's style was to look at the broader policy implications of the decision, which also is a good way to approach how a case should be determined. The issue in this case was that the petitioner and the government had two different readings of the Federal Tort Claim Act Section 2680H. More specifically, if the statute should be read as the inspectors of purses and bags are considered officers so they have the duty and power to do these searches. The petitioners argued the ramifications if not read that way. One helpful tip was to see how they weaved a theme throughout the argument which made it easier to remember that main point and helped remind you of the relevance of information. In this case, that theme was we as the petitioners want you to read the statute the way that it was written while the other side simply wants to read it the way they want it to be read. Lastly, the other side did a good job at structuring their responses by always answering a court’s question by giving a direct answer and then giving a brief explanation and finally citing it with case and statutory precedent to enhance their arguments. It made it easier to follow, and something I will use as my answers are not so organized on the spot. I will definitely be implementing several of these techniques during my Oral Argument to ensure I am concise, making impact with every word I choose to say, and bolstering my argument through theme and structuring response choices. IOverall watching this video translates to a stronger brief and oral argument as I will bring in tips of keeping a strong theme which will help reinforce my argument throughout. Moreover, by looking at the hypotheticals made me realize some holes in my own arguments. I may have that I should tie up so my written or oral arguments do not seem not fully thought out. In the end, I felt that the non-petitioner party should have won. It seemed that the judges were not buying to adopt petitioners standing at some points of the argument of reading an exception to an exception clause narrowly which in my mind struck as an effective point which is why I ended up siding with the non petitioners. 

On another note though no procedural issues were mentioned, it was interesting watching the proceeding, as the attorneys were all in professional attire, they had what it seemed to be a quick attack sheet to refer to if need be but were not reading off a page, and the demeanor was much more friendly in the first case when starting out. That was not expected, as I thought it would be more strict. It was so interesting seeing the judges effortlessly ask away with questions, and the attorneys not showing any nerves at all, showing how much experience they truly have. The arguments in general had different tones. One was much more complex in terms of discussing their argument, when it could have been made simpler - this being the petitioner’s argument from the first court. Also, the court did delve into more hypothetical scenario lines of questions. However, in the second case the issue was kept more simple alongside the main argument points, and there was less of that hypothetical scenario questioning.

Oral Argument Link: Third Circuit: https://www.ca3.uscourts.gov/oral-argument-recordings-video

The biggest takeaway was you need to keep the argument going, seeing people waiting for the judge to respond or getting too winded up in what a justice was asking was the most ineffective thing ive seen. However, the most effective thing I have seen is was the ability to not concede when a jude asks you to concede, as you are not obliged too. It shows more confidence and understanding of your argument.

Finally, for persuasive techniques I used imagery in the beginning when creating the theme and repetition throughout the argument and closing to help reinforce our own parties stances which was effective. I did not note any new persuasive techniques however in my partner's arguments.

I was in a way through having to do reflection on reflection after every big piece of assignment, rewiring my brain on how to learn. For example, let’s take the spring semester. During the spring, we had six reflection prompts. One of the prompts that we had was to review the two oral argument videos that we were asked to watch. We had to take note of the skills the attorneys used, what was effective, what was not effective, takeaways, who we thought should have won, whether the judge was right, and many more prompts. My regular process would be to skim videos the professor assigned of me, jot down anything that seemed to be important, and never watch the whole video through. I would use any information I learned during the argument, and then never reflect on the process. I would never take the opportunity to reflect on any of the information I learned, on what went wrong, what went right, or absorb as much information from the video I watched. However, the reflections changed my entire perspective and process, even if it was forceful at first. For this reflection on reviewing the oral argument videos, to begin with, I would first glance at the prompt. I would see what type of questions were being asked which really sparked my interest in figuring out the answers to those questions. I would then be intrigued, and would take the time to watch the entire video, wanting to see how many of those questions prompted would be answered. Also having to do a reflection, enabled me to put more work up in front by reviewing the entirety of the video to see what knowledge I could gain. Then after reviewing the video, I would start jotting down notes and surprising things that came to my attention. Things I would never have learned if I only skimmed the video, started practicing, and showed up to the oral argument. I was able to learn many substantive skills from how to structure answers, to court demeanour, to types of logos, pathos, and ethos to use in the argument. I then began doing the reflection, and having to critically think about these questions and answering them, really helped with ensuring I was understanding everything from the video. It also then helped with long-term memory, where I am able to retrieve that knowledge. If this was old me, by now I would have discarded and been unable to remember everything that I had learned. For me, reflections were key to rewiring my brain from focusing on short-term goals to focusing on the long-term acquisition of knowledge to improve yourself. 

From all the types of reflection prompts, my personal favorites were when we did a major writing or legal exercise, as being able to reflect on my conceptual learning and skills was key to in the future taking on similar exercises and seeing that gradual improvement. However, I did appreciate all the reflections. I liked the ones like Prompt #1 where we were able to also reflect on the semester, what was working, what was not working. I liked these prompts too as reflections don’t always come from actual conceptual exercises. It can also come from personal experiences and feelings, learning how to encounter them, and improve as well. That is the main reason why I felt that both reflections were essential in my learning and growth, and that I will continue to implement them.

Seeing how important reflections were, I hope to continue it in law school classes. The way I would consider implementing this during the semester is every two weeks I would take the time to reflect on concepts I had learned. Then I would be able to really absorb the concepts I am grasping, seeing what I am struggling with, and then finding ways to improve. Additionally, I would use it to address the emotions, feelings, and concerns I was having. I could make a plan on how to address those concerns and struggles I will face during the semester and combat it. 

Apart from just learning about how reflections can shape my personal life and the learning processes I implement, it also taught me more about myself as a budding legal professional. These reflections from the start of the fall semester to the end of the spring semester, showed how learning in the legal profession is always cumulative. Each reflection was a piece of reflection on our learning process in the first year of law school. Just looking back, I see all the questions and worries that I had. How then I thought about tips and pieces of advice, and then implemented those said tips and pieces of advice. I saw first hand how it helped and contributed to my growth. I saw how ever after growing I kept giving myself critiques to even further grow. Similarly, conceptually I saw how I struggled in certain writing pieces or exercises, and then saw how my reflections guided me through improving my strengths and minimizing my weaknesses to result in that final exercise of my appellate argument showing how much I had come since the first day of law school. From the girl who was nervous to how she would do, to crushing the appellate argument not being fazed one bit by any of the questions thrown at me. Reflections are key in the legal career as they help with your growth, assessing your weaknesses and strengths. It helps you grow through reflecting on key concepts and skills and how to further develop those skills. It is a practice I will take into the legal industry, where after every major assignment, I will reflect. I will take the time to see what worked, what didn’t work, what concepts or skills am I struggling with, how can I improve, and then give myself feedback in next reflections to see how that plan went. Not only will this continually reinforce legal concepts and skills, but it provides a path for growth no matter where I end up. 

I am thankful for the key experiences legal writing has provided me with, as I will take the skill of reflection into every step of my legal journey from here on out. It was one of the most useful tools from this year, and I am eager to see how it will continue to shape me into a better budding lawyer.