Finishing my second year of law school

On Friday 5/2, Ashley posted "Beginning of the End" saying that it was my last day of my second year of law school and all I had left was to turn in my 30-page paper due at 5 PM that day. Well, she cursed me.

If you check, you will see that it was posted at 8:46 AM, almost the exact time that I opened my computer at the library. It would not start up completely. After nearly an hour of restarting with no success, I went to the IT office at school. After another hour, they diagnosed that my motherboard and memory card were fried!

At this moment, let me tell you why it is important to back up your data often. My school has a great service where they provide space on the server for each student to save their documents. They even have a script program that you can put on your computer, so that with a single-click your stuff is backed up. Unfortunately, most of the students don't use the service because they don't realize the need.

But luckily, I am a big cybernerd who backs up my files all the time. The night before the meltdown, I was at the library until 4 AM working on my paper. Thanks to having established the habit of backing up, I did so despite my extreme tiredness. So, I did not lose any progress on my paper. Thanks to the IT at my school, I was able to minimize the stress in having my computer meltdown hours before my 30-page paper was due.

The only problem was the time wasted diagnosing and dealing with the breakdown. The IT group gave me a loner laptop and I was back to work, but having lost a large chunk of time. After working for a couple of hours, I went to see my professor at 2 PM. I told her the situation and asked for just a couple of hours past the 5 PM deadline. She was really understanding and said close of business on Friday would be the same as before 9 AM on Monday because she wasn't going to be able to read all of the papers over the weekend anyway. What a relief!

So, I went home and continued with the plans we had made for Friday evening, Saturday (in Charlottesville), and Sunday morning. Then I went in Sunday evening and worked on my paper. Because I am a perfectionist when it comes to my writing, I ended up staying the entire night and not getting home until 7 AM Monday morning.

But it was done and I am now 2/3 of the way through law school! The lack of sleep made for an interesting time with my parents, though...