One week down...three years to go.

I just finished my first week of law school, and I wanted to write down my thoughts about it so far.

Law school is more demanding than undergrad in a very specific way. The material (so far) has not always been more difficult than the material I saw in college. The biggest change is the way in which students are held accountable for doing the work. In undergrad, your performance was evaluated, semi-anonymously, apart from class time. You turned in papers, the professor graded them and handed them back. Other students didn't see your work unless you showed them yourself.

Although most of our grades in law school are based on a final exam, we're evaluated on our performance every day. Professors call student names from the roll, and if you don't know the answer to a question, they embarrass you. It's an extremely motivational way to get students to do the reading.

It's also mentally exhausting.

I done good.

The University of Alabama won the #19 spot in Princeton Review's top 20 party schools of 2007.

I almost had a heart attack.

Maybe not a heart attack. It was more like an acute rush of embarrassment. A few days ago, I emailed my picture to the University of Alabama's law school, for (what I thought was) my student ID. I picked out a nice, respectable looking picture of myself from college graduation. In the picture, I'm wearing a strapless dress and pearls, and the side of my mom's face is slightly visible where I cropped her out. However presentable, the photo was absolutely casual.

When I realized the picture was for the online student photo directory instead of my personal ID card, I rushed to the law school's website to see what type of pictures the other students had sent in. I clicked on the class of 2008 -- the first class listed -- and found that the power suits were out in full force. Every picture was formal and taken by a professional photographer.
Great, now I'm going to be "that hippie girl" who sent in her Facebook picture for the law school directory.

Then I checked what I should have checked originally. In my own class photo directory, the class of 2010, the pictures were blatantly casual. My wavy hair-down strapless-dress picture fit in perfectly with the vibe of the rest of the pictures. Power suits were in the minority, and tanned faces cropped from bright vacation pictures ruled the day. What's going on here? Is the south becoming more casual? Is the practice of law becoming more casual?

I blame it on Facebook.