Welcome to law school! These next three years, if you make it that far, are guaranteed to be the best, and worst of your lives. Good luck.
For those of you who are new to these parts, here’s a word to the wise: Beware of the hassle and exasperation that comes from driving your car to campus. Returning veterans know that on good days – Fridays and weekends – the parking situation at the University can be complicated, and on bad days -the rest of the week – impossible. Unfortunately, parking just got a whole lot worse, and it’s going to be a while before it gets better, if it ever gets better.
Because of road construction, a small parking lot and almost all of the parking meters surrounding the law school are unavailable, and for your added convenience, several streets bordering the University are closed. You may have also noticed that over the summer the main law school parking lot became the dump site for a Mt. Everest of Hayward Field gravel. By the time the rest of the University starts classes in September, all the construction is scheduled to be finished, but then the freshmen will move in and monopolize the parking spaces, followed by the rest of the students and their vehicles.
Also, don’t think that bumper sticker you paid $100 for will get you anywhere. If anything, it only allows DPS to identify whose car is parked illegally so it can properly ticket you and charge your student account. That little tidbit probably wasn’t included in the orientation handbook. Maybe next year.
In order to forgo the desperation of searching for a parking spot 10 minutes before your legal writing class, only to end up putting your car in an unauthorized location and subsequently finding the dreaded green and yellow citation on your driver’s side window, use your student ID to board an LTD bus or the EmX for free. If you’re within walking or biking distance, an umbrella or rain gear is a small price to pay compared to the rage and frustration that will build with each passing day of playing musical parking spots with your peers, not to mention the inevitable decline in your GPA and rapport with your professors caused by habitual tardiness.
If driving is a must, then so is scheduling the earliest classes available in order to arrive on campus while your peers are still up cramming from the night before. Basically, your choices are either to forget sleep altogether, or find an alternate way to get to class. It’s up to you.
Law school will cost you enough, and not just financially. Give back to your sanity, your bank account and the environment – leave the car at home.