I’m sitting at a study carrel at the library. (“Carrel” is kind of a funny word, eh? I don’t find that many people use it or even know what it is, but I guess I’ve spent countless years sitting at the them and studying like a good little Asian child, so I’ve gotten quite used to telling people “You can find me at the last carrel on the right” and “I fell asleep at the carrel and accidentally farted, do you think anyone noticed?”) I’m trying to compile all of my Family Law notes into what law students call Condensed and Annotated Notes, or a CAN. You might think that calling something an “annotated note” is redundant, but then you’d be wrong. Because law students say so.

As usual, I’m having a hard time getting down to work. Now that I’ve made it to what I hope is the final stage of my education, I can’t muster the motivation to actually put in 100% of my effort, especially when I have a pretty good job lined up for the summer and for articling (provided I don’t accidentally run over an infant or stab a hobo in the summer). I’ve been so scared, for what seems to have been my entire life, of not amounting to what I’d hoped to be, but it seems as though things are panning out the way I planned. I feel like I’ve been holding my breath this entire time, and now my real life—the one without books or exams or constant waiting—is finally beginning. It’s an amazing feeling that I never thought I’d achieve. Of course, I’m still nervous about things like final exams and starting my new job like any other student, but if I put in just enough effort, I feel like I can sufficiently coast through on those.

Because things have been going well, I applied to an international exchange for my third and final year of law school. I had to interview for it and everything. Anyway, to make a boring story short and somewhat interesting, I am going on exchange in Paris next year! If you had the superhuman will power to follow along with my adolescent ramblings from high school and angst-ridden posts throughout undergrad, you’ll know that I’ve been dreaming about Europe for as long as I can remember—and now I finally get to go!

So, for now I am happy. I don’t want this feeling to end. And sitting at a study carrel in the afternoon will not dampen my mood, as I search for places to live in La Ville-lumière.