Connections

The bar studying started a couple of weeks ago and one of the first topics I covered was Evidence. So Evidence is about what kind of evidence can be used in criminal and civil cases... there are a set of Federal Rules of Evidence which are used in federal court and are kind of the model for most states, then each state has their own rules of evidence which either track or depart from the federal rules. Evidence is full of exceptions and rules and exceptions to the rules. I never felt like I "got" it in law school (um, don't tell anyone that, since I'm like trying to be a trial attorney and all...) and didn't feel like the first pass of bar review changed that.
It reminds me a lot of learning Spanish. I started Spanish class in 3rd grade and continued studying Spanish really through college. And, pathetically, never felt like I "got" it either. Until I studied abroad in Chile. Then, by combining the rules I'd been taught over and over but struggled to apply correctly, with learning language in blocks... I started to "get" it. Instead of debating in my head whether something was preterite or subjunctive, I could take a block of language I knew to be correct and change the verb conjugation from "we" to "he." And so on.
I am thinking Evidence has to be like this. I am going to not stress terribly about my inability to truly "get" it, I just need to "get" it well enough in a couple of months, but I do look forward to a day when I can wow my colleagues with my facility with evidentiary issues.
I wonder what other of life's stumbling blocks are like this, things we can't master until we just do them. They're impossible to learn from books but, like, totally no big deal once we're in the middle of them. I hope lots because as many things seem unattainable these days, I prefer to picture future-me making astute objections in a death-penalty case.... in Spanish.