Joshua Rasco joined NSU this fall as a first-year law student at the Shepard Broad Law Center. This native Floridian may have graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Humanities from Florida State University, but he is “a ‘Cane at heart.” Rasco has also been a drummer for 16 years, and plays in the band Thick Wet Fire. He hopes to practice intellectual property law when he graduates. His philosophy is “Life is short, laugh it up.”
In the months leading up to law school, I was given some words of wisdom from friends and family. They said things like, “Don’t worry. I heard that it’s just the first year that’s tough” or “It can’t be that bad. I think you’ll be fine.” Then I encountered lawyers who actually went through law school and let’s just say that their words were not as comforting.
My first week of law school started with Contracts and Lawyering Skills and Values, a legal writing and research class. Since I live in Miami, I had to wake up at 6:30 a.m. to make it to my first class by 10 a.m. That first class ended at 11 a.m. and then I was off to the library to study. My next class started at 3 p.m. and ended at 4 p.m., and then I was off to the library again. Throw three more classes into the mix and my week continued. Repeat steps one through three — occasionally adding a study group just to make sure I wasn’t the only one losing my mind.
On Tuesday, I went to speak to one of my professors about my uneasiness over my ability to brief cases — an analytical skill crucial to surviving law school. She looked at me with a straight face and said, “Well, Josh, today is your…second day of law school, right? I think you’ll be fine. You have some time left to work on that.” That’s right. Day 2. That’s when I realized how far from reality I had escaped.
All joking aside, my first week of law school has been one of the greatest mental and emotional chal-lenges I have ever faced. Luckily,
I can tell you that I truly love it. Just a year ago I was working as a Commercial Asset Manager for a company holding more than $12 billion in commercial and residential real estate assets. I managed a pipeline with more than $10 million in residential and commercial assets. A 60-hour workweek was the minimum. It sounds like a lot, and it was, but it wasn’t the challenge I needed to keep me entertained long term.
Here, at NSU, you have to put in more than an 8-hour day, but it’s nothing like working in the corporate world. You don’t get to take a few minutes longer getting your coffee in the morning when you just can’t wake up. You can’t go to a fancy lunch when you’re having a bad day and, worst of all, instead of receiving a nice check for all your hard work, you’re writing the check!
Now that I put it all down on paper it sounds a bit sadistic. What can I say? Law school is not for the faint of heart, but it is for me!
