My First Week of Online Law School Featuring Jewel Tones

It officially marks a week since I started my spring semester of (online) law school.

In the fall, I was fully in-person. But this semester has started online. I am tentatively online fully until February and then if we get to go to our in-person classes, I will still be online Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with 95 other students in my Zoom classes and I will be going in-person on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

 

This semester I am taking Contracts, Property, Constitutional Law I and Legal Writing II.

 

I was dreading online school.

However, it seems like I kind of got the hang of it, more so than last spring when me and my classmates (and the rest of the world) was forced online for the rest of my undergraduate career.

This time for online classes, I know what to expect. I like the flexibility of working from home.

I like that I don’t have to commute which means I get to sleep in a bit more. I also like that I don’t have to put on real pants. I do always do something with my hair and put a nice top on with some sort of accessory. I love to wear bright colors on Zoom to make me look alive, awake and put together, even if the only thing you see is from my shoulders up in my little Zoom box. Putting on a shirt and a bit of jewelry every day makes me feel pulled together. I highly recommend it for Zoom university or Zoom work.

 

I really don’t like how much time I am on the computer though and that I spend the entire day sitting in my pink room.

By the end of my classes, I am ready to get up and get out of the house, whether that be on a walk or a drive to the gym.

 

I’ve said it once, but I will say it again, I could not do law school without my amazing friends.

I met the most amazing group of women first semester of law school! Without them I would be lost and not as successful as I am right now.

 

Most of our professors give us 10-minute breaks during online class so we can get up and walk around and get away from the screen. But from one screen to the next I go, because the second the professor turns off their camera, and we turn ours off, my friends are FaceTiming me in our big group chat and we are chatting about the class and the professor, like we would’ve done in an in-person class, like we did all last semester.

 

We have also started up our study group/Bachelor watching Monday’s again. So we can get together off of the Zoom and FaceTime screens and be together and share laughs and stories from class but also from outside our Zoom lives.

 

I also really like the set-up in my room this semester. I bought a cheap laptop stand from Amazon to prop my laptop on when I am in Zoom class so I can look up at the professor and the class and not hurt my neck. But it also gives me more room on my desk to spread out all my notes and papers. I think this laptop stand has been a game changer so far. It makes me feel like I’m in class in-person too, because I am looking up at the professor, like I would in a classroom.

 

So far, I don’t have too many complaints about online class. My professors are all so nice and understanding about how hard it is to be online, but they are also tough and expect us to bring our A games every class, which is encouraging but also difficult considering I am sitting in the same spot every single day for 12+ hours a day. But it is nice to feel like I am in a real classroom with real class standards.

 

I will never fully like online classes, but I am hanging in there and making the most of it!

I can’t wait to be back in-person every day for school, like in 2019. A girl can dream.

Hopefully that will be very soon!

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New York vs. North Carolina: Life, Fashion and Culture

For the past four years I have lived in North Carolina while attending Wake Forest University. In May I graduated and moved home to New York, where I have been living since then.

I’ve definitely made some notes over the years about similarities and differences between my home up north and my home at school. I have continued to make these observations now while I am living at home.

Obviously, these are all my opinions and may be a bit biased because I did live on a college campus for four years with kids mostly from the northeast, but still here are my observations based on the outside world from the bubble of campus.

 

New York	North Carolina
Everyone is always busy and, on the move	More relaxed pace of life
Bolder in my fashion looks	Very preppy and southern look
No one stares at you when you take pictures, they actually move out of the way when they see you are trying to take pictures. (Nothing phases New Yorkers)	People stare at you when you take pictures
Way more expensive	Expensive, but not as bad
Takes you longer to get places because there are more people and more traffic	No traffic and no honking, but everything takes longer because everyone moves slower
Dirty streets	Clean streets
I’m way more confident in New York, because no one is judging you	Friendlier and happier people
You are always meeting new people	Everyone knows someone from New York

 

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The Importance of Mentors

In the fall, I was given the opportunity to apply to a mentorship program through my school. I have never had an official mentor before. I have always gone to teachers, family members or older friends (or younger) for advice and support with life and school.

But now, that I am officially starting my path towards a legal career, I thought it would be super beneficial if I could have a legal mentor.

My sister-in-law is a lawyer, my neighbor across the street is a lawyer, and so is every other person in New York. But I know close to nothing about the legal profession. I have only worked as a research assistant to a law professor once, and that was it. That was my only taste of the legal field.

When I was offered this opportunity, I jumped at it. I have a very specific job I want to do.

I want to work for the legal team of a French fashion house. It is a very specific job, but with the advice or guidance from my mentor, I’m hoping to make that happen.

 

I applied to the program and was accepted.

My mentor’s name is Michael, very ironic, because my father, eldest brother and nephew all are named Michael.

He is an intellectual property lawyer and works with high end brands, which is exactly what I want to do! His job is insanely cool, and I am so glad I was able to connect with him.

 

I met with Michael several times this past fall via Zoom and I learned so much.

I learned about how to join the law review, how important grades are, how/when to apply for summer jobs, how many to apply to, how to get into the field I want and, etc.

He is the best!

 

I also have another mentor- Joe, who is helping me with my cover letters for my summer job applications. I have never had a really good cover letter until now, and it is all thanks to him. He is such an eloquent writer, and I am so happy that I have met him (virtually) and worked with him.

I wish I would’ve had mentors like these men when I was in undergrad and was looking to apply to law school. I had no idea about what kind of lawyer I wanted to be, or how to apply to law school or anything.

I love Wake with my whole heart, but their pre-law advisor is atrocious. It is embarrassing how horrible the advisor is. When I was a freshman, she told me I would never get into law school… thanks for nothing lady.

 

Here is the moral of the story: go find a mentor or if you are given the opportunity to be given one, take it! And if you have any questions about applying to law school, or going to Wake, let me be your mentor!

I’m serious! My DMs on Instagram and email (tallandpreppy@gmail.com) are always open and I’m happy to help! 

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Retail Horror Stories

I have worked in retail for the past three years in between school breaks and holidays. I genuinely love working retail. I love shopping, and my job allows me to help others shop and pick out clothes. It is so fun. My coworkers are the BEST, and they are the reason I come back every season. 

 

There are highs and lows to every job. Working with the public definitely gives you more lows than other jobs.

With that being said, I strongly believe that everyone should work at least once in retail or in a restaurant or in some profession where you work with the public.

I have learned so much about society and about myself working a retail job. I’ve also had one too many laughs from work as well. Even if you hate working retail you will still get a handful of good stories out of it.

 

Please enjoy!

Over the summer during Covid, when I was working retail, our public bathroom in my store was closed. I was standing at the front door of the store and these two men came up to me and asked if our bathroom was open, I said no because of the pandemic. They shrugged at each other and then turned around and walked into the parking lot. I watched them make a b-line to the back row of cars and hide behind a car and pee. I was disgusted but also kind of laughed. It makes a good story.

 

There are definitely funny things that happen working retail, but also scary things that no one really think about. One weekend this past summer when I was out east with my friends, I was sitting on the beach and my phone started blowing up. There were gun shots fired at my mall. Gang violence... It was startling that this had happened at my place of work. No one was hurt, but still terrifying. No one knew what was going on and all my coworkers bunkered down in the back of the store. Scary stuff.

 

Usually when someone comes in and does a big return (like thousands of dollars of merchandise), it’s normally a red flag that something is stolen, or something is off. So lucky me, I was working the register and rung up a $1,000 return. This woman tried to return a pair of shoes that she swore weren’t already returned, however on my computer it said they were. The customer was not amused so the only thing I could’ve done as a lowly associate was to call over a manager and then call our customer service line and see what they could do. I called customer service and they told me that the shoes had already been returned and that I needed to take back the merchandise. Customer service told me that something was not right here and that they were going to flag the customer for trying to get extra money.

 

Another time when I was at the register, my least favorite place, lucky me again, I had a customer who wanted to return 19 button-down shirts and then price adjust 11 of the 19 shirts. Talk about a headache. We will price adjust within a week or two of purchase. How we price adjust is that we have to physically return every item that needs to be price adjusted and then repurchase them with the new price. This was a headache because I had to return 19 shirts and then he only wanted the cheapest ones with the new price. So I rang all of them to be repurchased and then he had told me which ones he wanted to keep and which ones he didn’t, shirt by shirt.

 

Once I rang up a man who bought 44 pairs of pants! 44! Sir what are you going to do with 44 pairs of pants?

Over the summer I showed up to work to five cop cars in the parking lot surrounding two women who had gotten in a fist fight while they were waiting in line to go into a store. Wooo, fun times!

 

My most jaw dropping day working retail was when I was informed that escorts shop at my store. Over the summer we had a capacity limit, so some days I was on door duty counting and making sure we didn’t have too many people in the store due to NYS regulations. A young, statuesque, model like woman in a very tight body suit got out of the car that was parked right in front of my store and an old man got out of the driver’s seat. They walked up to me at the door, with no intentions of walking in, rather they wanted to know where the Gucci store was. I pointed them in the right direction and kind of thought after they walked away, like hmm that was an interesting couple. I then told my manager, and he was like umm Elizabeth, wake up, that was an escort. I was like escort?! My naive little brain was stunned that there could be escorts at my mall.

 

Another wild day working the register was when a woman had to return some items that had been purchased with her stolen credit card. She explained that somehow, she found out that someone had stolen her credit card and the thief had all of her billing addresses. The people who stole her card were ordering items to her house and were waiting outside her house to steal the packages off her doorstep, so she could never return the items and get the money back for the products. I forget how she found this information out, but it was absolutely wild to me. So, the package she was returning today, was one that she was able to snag before the thieves could re-steal the packages off her porch. The thieves even started shipping packages to her other house and stealing them off of that porch too. I told my manager the story and we called customer service and they were aware of the situation. So, we took the items back. I was super spooked out. These thieves were following her and tracking her and her family’s moves and knew when they were home and not, just to steal a package of clothes. The things that some people will do for clothes is wild. 

 

One day I was tiding and folding the cashmere, when a woman walked in with her little white fluffy dog. The dog found a pair of cashmere gloves that was on the lower shelf and started chewing on the gloves! I was like “Ma’am, excuse me, your dog is eating the cashmere gloves.”

 

Another cashmere story! Before Christmas, the cashmere was on sale for $75 each if the sweater was under $200 before the sale. There were signs everywhere and at the bottom of the sign was a little asterisk (because everything has fine print) and said some exclusions may apply, please speak to a sales associate. This woman grabbed one cashmere sweater that was over $200 and went to the register. The cashier said it was excluded and she immediately asked to speak with the manager. Our store director walked over, and she introduced herself and asked her what the problem was. The customer announced that she has worked in retail for years and has a degree in fashion and blah blah blah and was horrified that the signs didn’t say what they actually meant. Sorry, but if you worked in retail you would know that there is always fine print...

 

I hope that you enjoyed these stories!

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My 2021 Bucket List

This year instead of making New Year’s resolutions, I’ve decided to make a bucket list for 2021.

I’m a big list maker and I have a lot of things I want to see and do this year (Covid permitting)! 

I thought this would be more fun and more attainable than generic goals. My morals and standards for life haven’t changed so of course my goals for this year are to continue to be a good friend, daughter, sister, girlfriend, student, etc. My life goals of being confident and happy also haven’t changed.

 

I’m a positive person so this list is helping me look forward to fun things I hope to do this year after a long year of not being able to do anything.

1.   Get the vaccine

2.          Dance at a club or bar and PARTYYYYY 

3.          Have a graduation ceremony and get to go back to Wake (I have a whole list of things I want to do in Winston that I never got to)

4.          See my friends and hug them

5.          Go out for brunch

6.          Sing at a karaoke bar

7.          Visit Bryant Park during their summer movie nights

8.          See a Broadway show

9.          Attend the US OPEN

10.       Cheer on the Mets at Citi Field 

11.       Visit and drink at the Boardy Barn 

12.       Be a spectator at the Belmont Racetrack

13.       Dress up as Santa at Santacon in December

14.       Visit Krispy Kreme in Times Square

15.       Spend a day at the Ice Cream Museum

16.       Attend a drag queen show

17.       Go to Wake for homecoming 

18.       Get a summer internship 

19.       Visit Florida

20.       Visit Emily in DC and see the cherry blossom trees

21.       Meet more blogger friends in real life

22.       Attend our friend’s postponed wedding this December and spend New Year’s in Tennessee with them

23.       Go to the Statue of Liberty

24.       Hike upstate New York

25.       Hit 10k on Instagram

Linked below is my outfit (may contain affiliate links):