i'm not arguing, i'm just . . . discussing

Moot Court is over, and it went just fine. Although my tummy was a ball of nerves a few hours before, by the time I got up to speak, I felt confident and ready. It helps that I didn’t have to go first.

People told me (and by people I mean 2- and 3Ls) not to prepare. They told me to have an introduction and then not worry about it, because I’d just be asked questions and I’d just have to answer those questions. That the judges wouldn’t care about what I wanted to say, because they just want their questions answered. And that was mostly true. I say mostly because I did take some time to read through my opponent’s brief and think about how I would rebut his arguments. And that helped.

I should also note that I am one of those people who talks to herself. Usually I talk to myself in my head, although when I still had a car, I was known to have conversations aloud while driving. Anyway, this little quirk was really helpful for moot court, because I could read an argument or a question and then have a conversation about it in my head. And then when I got up to present my oral arguments, I wasn’t terrified, because I had already talked to myself about all those points. Or most of them. It wasn’t so bad. And I swear, I am not insane. Just quirky. Come on–you talk to yourself, too, admit it.

So moot court is over, and it wasn’t bad at all. My approach–treating it like an experience to learn from rather than something really terrifying and competitive–was a good one. Of course, it wasn’t graded. But I’ve been known to take things really seriously when absolutely nothing at all is at stake, just for the sake of “winning,” so for me to be relaxed about it was a big deal.

Moot court is over. Time to get cracking on outlines and studying.