Gearing Up-A checklist for starting a new academic year....

Welcome back ASP’ers!! I know a lot of us have already started teaching either at orientation or our regular full blown classes. To make your transition from "summer you" to "law school you" easier, here is a brief checklist to help you prepare:

1. Prepare your family. My ADULT children have felt no shame in calling and asking me to do them favors all summer (they have been home between their school years). Practice with me: Can you bring me a jacket? No. Can you make my lunch? No. I am locked out of the house, where are you? No. Should I walk the dog? Yes. This leads nicely to the next item on our list.

2. Prepare your pets for your absence during the day. They will miss you (dogs) or your laptop (cats), so they need to make alternate plans for the days you are at school. Also, if Zoom is coming back into your day-to-day, they will need grooming and voice lessons.

3. Prepare your wardrobe. You are going to need work appropriate attire (sigh) and big person pants for the semester ahead. Have a pile of dry cleaning that you meant to drop off in May? Have a bunch of dry cleaning you did drop off in May? Drop it off, pick it up…. now.[1]

4. Prepare your transportation. I don’t drive to work here in Boston because it would literally (seriously, not in the purely embellishing sense) take me longer than the train --and parking here is insane.[2] For me this means that I need to make sure my monthly subway pass is set to refill for the semester. It also means I need to get ready to have the beginning of my semester coincide with baseball season because I live on the train line that goes to Fenway Park. Bracing myself for the onslaught is a time honored tradition here. Did I mention I am a Yankees fan? Sigh. The good news is that the Red Sox do not seem to be in a position to ruin my commute past September this year, but we never assume anything here. If you do drive, make sure your vehicle is inspected, clean (ish-sand never comes out), filled with gas (or electrons) and stocked with healthy snacks and extra outerwear.

5. Prepare and shore up your boundaries. We are givers-it is hard for us not to give as ASP’ers. Carve out your time now. Set up your calendaring app to keep some of your time (for exercise, scholarship, lunch etc.) sacred. And really keep it sacred.[3] As a corollary, go to your bathroom mirror and practice saying, “no” until it genuinely rolls off the tongue. It takes time, be patient with yourself.

6. Prepare to enjoy the energy of a new year. We are academics because we love this stuff. Revel in it. Open a new box of binder clips, or pens. Fill your stapler. Get ready to learn something new, because if we aren’t learning, we aren’t teaching.

Have a great year everyone!

(Liz Stillman)

 

[1] That always reminds me of the theme song of the TV show Rawhide as made famous in The Blues Brothers, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtP7yH7l87w. Pick ‘em up, drop ‘em off…Rawhide. Yes, this is how my mind works….

[2] Even Harvard faculty cannot park in Harvard Yard because it is not a parking lot and it is actually in Cambridge, not Boston. Oh, and I don’t teach there. So many reasons….

[3] I am, admittedly, not good at this.