Thanks for the helpful tips, and appreciate any continued advice anyone has. I enjoyed the vote of confidence that being a law student gets here. One question I have in addition to those from the original post concerns food selection. One possible demotivater was concern about ending up only able to cook a limited selection of food, leading quickly to a food rut that could get tiresome, as well as some laziness in figuring out what I would like to eat at a certain time, rarely ever planning ahead. So my question is how do you determine what to eat at any particular time (free from any strict diet plans) and attempt to have a diverse assortment of meals. As mentioned, I am very flexible eater and enjoy eating as many different types of food and meals as can if possible. Much of this was inspired by living in Singapore, which had an extremely diverse selection even in my dorm. Much appreciated.

I am a 25 year old NYC law student currently in San Francisco for the summer for work. I have gone by life not have ever learned to really cook, surviving primarily off of my family, dorm food, and now free food that I get at the law school supplemented by buying food somewhere in the city that is prepared one way or another (microwavable to take out, etc.) Having hit this point in life, I would like to learn how to actually cook, esp now that have some time that won't have when go back to school and when eventually start working as a lawyer. This is in hopes of garnering long terms savings, healthier eating, and making myself a better person. I have some basic ability to microwave and boil pasta, but that is the most i have really done, plus make a basic tuna sandwich. Now that I have some down time on a relatively regular basis compared to my first year, I would like to go forward and start learning to cook rather than spend a whole summer eating some form of prepared food from the Safeway across the street,. Thus, I am hoping for some advice about how to proceed. I tend to learn best through a structured method (have spent my whole life as a student), so looking for either some sort of schooling/course or a highly recommended site/books that teach how to cook from step one onward. I am less interested in what tools should get, since can learn that from the books as well as classmates who cook regularly, and I am a very flexible eater, hoping to get a good variety of food in my diet, having traveled and lived both outside and around the US. I appreciate any advice and thank you for your responses.