Key to law school success: taking a break

A funny thing happened to me during my second semester in law school: I stopped studying as much, and my grades improved dramatically. That's actually a bit misleading. I still studied quite a bit, but I stopped obsessing about every assignment for every class. More importantly, I spent more time with my family and friends, and I didn't worry about exams as much. I'm trying to take the same approach with my second year of law school, balancing work and play. It's not an easy thing when you have massive reading assignments almost every night, on top of summer job interviews, law review assignments, and obligations with various student organizations. Still, I feel like I've done a pretty good job of blowing off steam lately. And especially this time of year, there are tons of cool things to do in the Louisville area and beyond. For example, last week I took my kids to the Falls of the Ohio, where we splashed around in the river and scrambled on the rocks (see super amateur cell phone video, above right).

This past weekend, my wife and I took the kids to Kings Island, an amusement park just outside Cincinnati. We're planning a trip to Holiday World, an amusement park in Indiana, later this month. And for Labor Day, we're joining a bunch of other families on a camping trip to the Red River Gorge, a mecca for rock climbers and other outdoor enthusiasts (that's me at the Red in 2003, at left, with my oldest son, who is now eight).

Anyway, the idea here is that success in law school means taking a break every once in a while. By the end of September, I will have taken enough breaks to last the entire school year, but for now I'm still on top of my classes and I feel much less stressed out than I did at this time a year ago. Got a de-stressing activity of your own? Post it in the comments field below.