Half-way done law school, bitches! And it only took a year and a half-and-then-another-couple-weeks. I had four exams, the latter three all in a row over the last three consecutive days. It was punishing. You know, for a student. If I were someone with a job, I suppose it would be par for the course.
There's a dirty little secret at Osgoode right now: the CUPE 3903 strike is the best thing that ever happened to us (me). I've never been more prepared for exams than I was this time, and it's all thanks to the lengthy impromptu holiday I received courtesy of the York University TAs and contract faculty walking off the job. My summaries were bound well in advance, I managed to get showered and dressed most days, and I never had to stay up past 2:30 a.m., let alone pull an all-nighter before an exam (which inexplicably produced my best mark last year). All that benefit, and I got to undermine an ongoing labour dispute just by showing up! Meanwhile, the strikers are still out there in the -15 degree weather, huddled around a barrel, fighting for a living wage
Now I'm going to sleep in, eat some sandwiches, read some of these books (I'm way behind), watch some movies and enjoy my four-day holiday. Merry Christmas!
2 comments:
My working thesis is that labour disruptions are good for education. My most successful stretch in law school so far happened last year when the UofM support staff were on strike. As a good lefty, I refused to cross the picket line to attend class for the duration of the strike. Without the burden of class, I had a much easier time keeping up with the readings.
Agreed. The experience confirmed what I had long believed: I wasn't getting anything out of the lectures anyway, and I should have been staying home, focusing on reading.
Plenty of students (well some) have opted to stay home, as you did. Now they're going to have to be at school well into May. I support their decisions and I admire their commitment but I couldn't afford to do it myself.
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