Chris Wieting
My name is Chris Wieting. I was born and raised in the Seattle area, so I decided to head north for undergrad, where I attended Western Washington University, majoring in History and German. Upon graduating, I jumped right into law school. Having finished my first year, I am now more convinced than ever that this was the right choice. Law school has been a completely different experience than I could have prepared for, but also much more fulfilling. WHen I'm not on campus, I can often be found spending time with my fiancé Jacky. Otherwise, I look forward to both meeting new people and to learning more about the legal field.
September
Having survived my 1L year, I felt I was prepared to be a 2L. While that still rings true this September, I am more busy now than I ever imagined that I would be.
The Semester started off with a bang with Legal Writing II and having my practice oral argument the second week of class. Despite my first experience in front of a practice judge, it was surprisingly fun. To finish off that week though, I drove up to Bellingham with my fiancé to attend her friend's wedding. While it was a pleasant experience, it also helped reaffirm my commitment to waiting until I graduate to get married.
The following weekend I had planned a camping trip. This was my last chance to enjoy the warm Summer we have been experiencing, and I was happy to oblige. A night out in the woods with my Constitutional Law book was a nice break from the Seattle skyline. I had some time to reflect back on the year, and I must say, being a law student is more rewarding than I would have expected. But, it was nice to leave it all behind for the weekend.
I rounded out September with a mediation training. One thing I learned last Spring, was that, with a law degree, there are more opportunities than I ever imagined. For me, mediation was just one of those avenues. So, while working on my first draft of my Legal Writing II essay, I attended a 25 hour training, and I got a lot out of it. While I may never be expecting what is coming next, I am definitely ready for it.
October
Having survived October, I can say I feel as if the semester has finally begun. Things have definitely picked up, but I'm feeling up to the challenge.
For Legal Writing, I completed my first memo and have begun drafting the second. In a way, starting a new memo is frightening, because there is so much stuff to look out for. But finishing a draft, splicing all the pieces together, I can look down at my paper and appreciate just how much my writing has improved in law school. I guess that is why Seattle U has one of the nation's top writing programs.
So at this point in the semester, I experienced the relief of completing my first memo, and now I get to plan out my Spring and Summer schedules. While I appreciate having a set schedule as a 1L that covered the basics, it really is a relief being able to plan out my own schedule. And so far, I have definitely made the most out of the free time that I created for myself.
While I'm enjoying my time here in Seattle, I do relish the chances to leave the city behind, and October has not disappointed in that respect. The wedding season for my circle of friends has carried over into October. This last wedding was a much quieter affair, but still full of friends and family. And events like that can be scarce in law school. It's too easy to dig in at the library and lose track of time.
While individual days seem to drag on, the weeks really do fly by. So, when fun things come up, like a chance to take my two year old niece to the pumpkin farm and watch a duck race, you just have to go.
November
If nothing else, law school has not failed to surprise me with how fast things really move. November was the most busy I have been in a long while, considering I wrapped up legal writing, survived thanksgiving and went to a LAN party.
As far as classes go, it finally felt like things were winding down. The professors are mentioning what they expect to see on their finals, review days are being tossed around, and even whispers of outlining can be heard echoing through our halls. On the one hand, all of this served as a daily reminder of just how much we had left to complete the semester, but at the same time, this is all that we had left.
Thanksgiving was really nice though. I had a few days to get caught up with my reading, I got to see some friends and family, and I was reintroduced to the important things in life, like sleep. The food was welcome too. But I was ready to go back; the remainder of the semester seemed to be unbelievably close.
Back in the swing of things, my attention switched to my upcoming appellate oral argument for Legal Writing II. The first was hard, my nerves definitely showed but I survived the one on one interaction, but I don't think I could have prepared any better for the panel of three judges that I faced. While I was still nervous this time, the small group setting actually was a lot more comfortable, and things worked out just fine.
To be fair though, everything may have seemed a little better because I was anxiously waiting for the weekend, during which I drove down to the Intel Corporation and attended a 300+ person LAN event for charity. Not a bad way to relax a little before the madness that is finals week.
January
It sounds kind of weird, but it feels good to be back. I was pretty anxious heading into my Fall semester finals, but once the waiting was over and I was actually taking the tests, things went pretty smoothly. I ended up doing a lot better than I expected in Constitutional Law and Individual Income Tax, and that really set the mood right for the rest of the break.
With some new found freedom and spare time, I got to indulge in some bad habits. I started living like a vampire and wasn't getting to bed until around 3 a.m. I was much too busy to sleep as I had to get caught up on video games. When it was actually light out though, it was nice to do some pleasure reading, in between baking cookies and making desserts for all the Christmas dinners that I was expected to attend.
Other than that though, I met up with some friends and tried to get out of the house when weather permitted. I spent a quiet night at home on New Year's Eve with my fiancé and took it easy for the rest of my break.
Then Spring semester came, and I was missing that familiar feeling of dread. Having survived the classes that I thought were going to be the most challenging for me, I find myself much more relaxed than usual for this time of the year.
Even my classes have worked out really well. My Mondays and Wednesdays are with Evidence, Remedies, and Criminal Procedure. I expect this to help me prepare for my Rule 9 internship this summer, during which I will be doing some criminal defense work. And if working as an attorney is anything like being a mediator, I get to look forward to meeting a lot of interesting people facing some unique situations. It seems like this will be a good year.
February
February has really flown by. Being the second month of classes, I feel like I am finally starting to settle in. I started some bad habits and got behind in my reading but then was able to catch up over President's Day, and now, more or less, my routine has been refined. Overall, I would say this has been a much better month than I expected.
However, as tradition seems to dictate, the fiancé and I ended up postponing our Valentine's Day dinner plans. At least this time we expected something to happen so we exchanged gifts that morning. I made up for it over the weekend though. That Saturday, I took a day off from law school and we did some shopping, saw a movie and had a nice dinner out together. A welcome break from the chaotic scrambling to finish a case brief for class.
The rest of the month seemed pretty normal. I checked in with the lawyer who I will be working for this summer as a Rule 9 intern. Starting this Summer I will be spending time in court, doing some defense work, something that I would not have expected at the start of this year. I also registered to take the professional responsibility portion of the bar exam this summer. I figure, it cannot be a bad thing to get that out of the way.
Otherwise, my attention has already begun to shift towards March and our upcoming Spring break. I am hoping that this week off will provide a nice chance to start outlining, to catch up on sleep and maybe visit a friend down in Oregon. But we shall see.
March
I can't necessarily speak or all law students, but March has consistently been an interesting month for me throughout my college career. Being in law school, March means more than just spring break, one less month standing in between me and Summer or just 31 days to mark off my calendar. This particular year, it has meant buying a new car, an opportunity to meet my future boss and some quality time spent with my fiancé.
First off, buying a new car was both more stressful and yet rewarding than I expected. Having never bought a car on my own before, I was nervous that I would end up with a lemon. Luckily for me though, I found out about a car purchasing program through Costco, and now that I have a monthly car payment, suddenly I have begun to notice every speck of dirt and scratch that appears in my paint. Now normally I wouldn't have time for such an extravagant shopping experience, but I luckily was able to hold out until Spring Break, or as I refer to it, a week to catch up. Being so late in the school year, the week break really does help to rejuvenate the spirits and it gave me a chance to catch up on my reading and briefing for class. But more importantly, it gave me the opportunity to go to the Aquarium with my fiancé, who last visited the aquarium when she was in a wheelchair while the aquarium was under construction. Also, towards the end of March, I got to meet the attorneys at the law firm where I will be working this summer and potentially during my 3rd year. The best part is, I did very little work to land this internship. The opportunity was literally dropped in my lap when the fiancé of a friend and former Admissions co-worker got a job in January at a small firm that was looking to expand. While I can't say for certain whether this position will lead to employment upon graduation, it would appear, at least for now, that networking really does work.
April
Well, it is that time of the year again. Classes are finishing up, I am planning my schedule for summer, and I am left wondering how it got to be finals already.
In order to finish everything up, I have a relatively short Animal law essay to write, which should be kind of fun. I am going to be writing about the validity of restrictions on pets in condos, and seeing as how I live in a condo myself; it very may prove to be valuable someday. After that, I will just be doing my finals prep outlines, making flash cards, which have proven to be my best friend when studying, and most importantly, sleeping in.
While this will keep me pretty busy for the next few weeks, it is more relaxing than my home life has been lately. Long story short, my fiancé was putting some groceries in the trunk of the car when the lid closed, hitting her in the head, giving her a concussion. Luckily she is ok, but I sure felt bad about it. Then A few days later she was told her position at work was being eliminated, followed by a promotion a few days later. So all in all, April has been a roller coaster of a month.
Probably the best part of April though has been the feeling like I fit in at my firm. After my supervising attorney won some motions in court that I worked on, I was put on the payroll. Things are really starting to look up. Summer should be fun; I hope you all enjoy yours as well.
