Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Law School - Pre-Moot Jitters

My moot is tomorrow.* I am feeling nervous, anxious, excited, worried, and a whole bunch of other things all mixed in there. I have been dreaming about it, and talking about it, and worrying about it. I try to remind myself that I will most likely be able to walk out of the room of my own volition, so I shouldn’t stress too much. But I can’t help it. I feel so unprepared. Or like I should be more prepared. Or something.

A part of me thinks I will be fine because I think I know what I am going to say. But there have been times in the past when I have had to speak in front of people and it hasn’t gone as well as I would have liked. I feel fine before I have to speak but once I am standing in front of those people, I get all shaky and breathy and nervous and don’t think as well as I normally do.

I know I’ll be fine. I know I’ll do fine. I am looking forward to tomorrow. But I will also be glad once it is done.

*A moot is a fake court session. Our moot is an appeal of a criminal judgement where the trial judge acquitted a woman of aggravated assault after stabbing a man. The issues are about battered woman syndrome and self-defence and whether or not they are applicable to the facts of the case. As with all appeals, the argument isn't about the facts that were found at the trial level, but rather the way the law was applied. This is a made up case and is not real. The point of this exercise is for us to be advocates in front of a panel of judges.

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