So it’s O-Week. Look at you go, you’ve gained entry to a great new uni and you’re studying law, no less! Buckle yourself in because you’ve got a big few years ahead of you. I’m Kiarah, a final year Law student here to tell you all the things I wish I knew (but certainly didn’t) before I started law school.

1. Make Friends.
I still remember so clearly me telling myself on my first day of law classes that I had to make friends. I was coaching myself through my nerves walking into my first ever Contracts 1 lecture and I was sure I was in the wrong place (literally and figuratively, more on that later). My friend Jodie can attest to the strangeness of the moment I’m about to describe; I was standing by the door way looking lost when I saw a girl with blonde hair laughing away with a few others, I decided we’d be friends. So, as you do, I waltzed on over to my new friend (who wasn’t aware of any of this at the time). I sat down and with the friendliest voice I could muster through my nerves I said; “Hi, I’m Kiarah!” Well aren’t I glad I did, Jodie (the friendly blonde) is one of my closest friends today and as we’ve progressed through law school we’ve picked up some other pretty amazing people to be in our gang too. Our group has spent countless nights late in the library, endured exam after exam and have weathered some personal storms together too. My point being, don’t underestimate the power of a shoulder to cry on or a friend to panic with. Trust me. 

2. Get Involved. 
There’s plenty going on at uni. Whether it be the Law Student’s Association, the Student Guild or the Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Society (this is a real thing) you’re never short on options for a ‘pack to run with’. In your first year of law school you may feel intimidated by the professional development events or ‘networking nights’ on offer and that’s ok. Don’t feel time spent in a sports club or student group is time wasted. An organisation like this may be the first time you experience conflict resolution, or have to run a meeting and it will definitely be the first time you need to prepare affiliation documents for your university (*shudder*). Become exposed to this stuff now, ‘cause there’s plenty more coming your way. 

3. Don’t Buy Food On Campus Everyday. 
Is is a personal attack on first year Kiarah? Yes. Do I ever want to know the sum total I’ve spent on take-away and coffee? No. This is a pretty self-explanatory one. This is the only time in your life it’s acceptable to eat ramen and baked beans every day, save your money for fun stuff.   

4. It Doesn’t Matter How You Got Here.  
So here’s a bombshell… I didn’t get straight into law school. I had to complete some politics and psychology subjects (*shudders again) to get my grades up to jump across to law. I know that this led to some serious feelings of imposter syndrome for the next couple of years. I’m here to tell you to spare yourself from worrying about whatever led you here. Maybe your hight school grades weren’t what they could have been or maybe you deferred uni 10 years ago and are just coming back now. It’s okay. You are here now. Welcome. We’re stoked to have you.  

5. Plan Your Week.
In your first week of classes I want you to listen really carefully when your lecturer runs through what’s required weekly for each subject. Maybe you’ve got to do some reading, attend a lecture and prepare some homework to take to tutorials. Next, pull up a table in a word document (don’t tell me to use Excel, I refuse) and create a column for each day of the week. Block out your class times and your part-time work. Now I need you to allocate a time each to do your Contracts readings, then your other readings, your tute prep and your summaries. Stick your new fancy weekly plan somewhere obvious and try to follow it each day. Be sure to leave Sundays and ‘the Bachelor’ free. (7:30 weeknights, September through to December). 

Just five steps to happy- H is for Health, A is for Attitude, P is for Passion, P is for Purpose, Y is for You. Clarissa Rawyard- The Happy Family Lawyer has (literally) written the textbook when it comes to being a happier lawyer and while I’m not quite a lawyer yet I am eagerly studying her methods to be the best almost-lawyer that I can be. 

Like anyone, I am prone to moments of unhappiness. I have experienced depression and while I am now a whole lot better at recognising when a bout of blue is coming my way, I am certainly not immune to it. I read Happy Lawyer Happy Life cover to cover in a heartbeat and from it I know that lawyers are predisposed to pessimism and by virtue of our make up the way we tend to create out markers of success can leave us feeling less than 100%. Well, truth is this applies to law students as well, so here’s my attempt at translating some of the ‘stuff’ I’ve learnt from Clarissa into law school speak. 

H is for Health.
I am not about to preach to you all on how to live the perfectly healthy life as I have no idea. But here’s what I do know; there’s no rule of what exercise should look like, it needn’t take place solely within the four walls of a gym which your student budget may not allow for. I get my exercise by taking selfishly long walks on beautiful Gold Coast beaches at least three times a week. I walk until I’ve run out of podcasts in my feed and spend most of the time paranoid the sun is slipping through my over sized sun shirt and Bunnings branded wide brim hat, it’s totally fabulous. Most importantly, and you’ll find I say this a bit, do what feels right for you. Here’s some non-negotiables; binge drinking is bad and people at our stage of life tend to frequent this behaviour a little more then they should, make sure it;s not becoming a problem. Every time you’re about to head out ask yourself this; am I drinking because I want to or because I feel I have to? Next, watch your diet come exam time- for me; stress = carbs, I’m working on it. More on this point, energy drinks are bad, go get a coffee. Also, set your alarm for 8 hours after you go to sleep and go to sleep 8 hours before you need to set your alarm- this was you can Netflix to your heart’s content (within reason, probably). 

A is for Attitude.
Our Mindset is everything, the way our brain is feeling cast’s it’s own light on everything we do, I know that when I’m having one of those unhappy days I spoke of earlier- everything feels terrible. Here is where I go on my big social media rant. Instagram and Facebook will be credited as a major source of our unhappiness in the years to come- it’s just true. People of my age are among the first people of the planet who endured our entire developmental phase under the cloud of social media. We are the generation that knows all too well the phenomenon (that probable sounds completely insane to anyone older than us); the Instagram model. The Instagram model is someone who is paid a full time wage to pose and post. They carefully curate their feeds and every image is designed to sell us a product within it- I told you it was insane! A consequence of all this is that we spend our days looking at image after image which is completely manufactured and after time we end up feeling terrible about ourselves because of it. This issue extends through body image issues (for man and women) all the way to spending money of silly things to make us feel like we’re keeping up. Please, please, go onto your socials right now; turn off notifications and unfollow as many people you don’t know if ‘real’ life as you can bare. You will be forever better off for it- I promise you; Instagram is making you sad. 

P is for Passion and Purpose.
For these points I don’t have a whole lot of learnings to share my main message is this; find your passion, follow it and don;t get caught in the tide of being a ‘good law student’. You will have a couple of ‘aha!’ moments throughout your law degree. When you feel great doing something- follow it passionately. Don’t look sideways worrying about what everyone else is doing, if you’re doing something you love, it will seldom end badly. After losing my beautiful sister-in-law to in a car crash in 2015 I went full steam towards becoming a youth road safety advocate. Did I miss some ‘traditionally important’ law milestones in the meantime? Absolutely, but what I did gain was a fire in my belly which I believe is much more exciting. 

Y is for You. 
Now, this step is here for a reason. I’ve come to the conclusion that Clarissa, the very cleaver cookie that she is, has put this step at the end as it beautifully encompasses all the steps before it. If you listen to your health, focus on a positive attitude, find your passion and follow your purpose; you will be a better you. Once you find your ‘better you’ learn to love yourself and go wherever your ‘better you’ takes you. Spend days doing what YOU love, wear what YOU want (see Instagram model photograph), follow the path that YOU feel yourself taking. It’s cool to be different and in a world full of people, why would you want to be anyone other than you! 

 Ok ok, I’ve waffled on for quite a while now. Finally, my happiness challenge. This weekend go and do something that you used to love doing as a child; truth is when we were little we were a more authentic version of ourselves, this is because throughout high school we were so desperate to be like everyone else. We tend to spend our late teens trying to distance ourselves as much as possible from our inner child so whatever you loved doing as a child- go find that love again. If nothing else, it’ll be stacks of fun. 

Choose Happy, my fellow law students- this is a wonderful time in our lives!