My first day of Orientation Week, I overheard a table leader – to my ear, quite seriously – ordain that there was to be no public discussion of LSAT scores or dates of admission. “Crumbs!” I thought. “Criminy! He has to say that out loud? I’m clearly in among a set of apex predators, hopped-up barbarians with giant brains scraped clear of empathy.” I all but turned to the nearest window, to crash through and make a break for Mexico and freedom.
Happily, the window turned out to be too narrow, and that leader’s rule to be entirely unnecessary. One early breakfast or late night after another, people were by and large more lovely than I could have hoped. To put a lot into few words, and speaking only for myself, Orientation Week was marked less by what did happen than what did not. Firstly, as above, my fellow 1Ls did not turn out to be wicked and remorseless sharks. (Sorry, people – I’d heard things online. We all did.) I got very used to an approving inner voice saying of people “Of course you’re going to be a lawyer. Please never sue me.”
Secondly, no one demanded our immediate and expert performance. “Give it time” was the constant theme of the lectures – some very pointed and skills-focused, some quite abstract to those of us yet to study law’s niceties, some indulging in the painful ritual of soliciting answers from a 200-person room. “Do yoga!” “Goof off sometimes!” “You’re the best class ever…on paper!” “People respect a Pass with Merit!” The message: this year, we’d need to take care of ourselves, and they were happy to help.
Thirdly, I did not, for the first time in a while, wish for more time to prepare, or to enjoy my leisure. This eagerness for the freedom to sink, swim, or happily paddle about in the middle is ultimately my overriding impression of O-Week 2013. As starchy pleasantries ceded to natural friendliness, as assigned seating became fluid, our schedule finalized and our bookstore bills mounted, one felt months of nervous speculation (for some) or of confident anticipation (for others) crystallize into a beckoning awareness of how close we were to the real thing. The work we signed up for. The Show.
No more hearing about what it would be, or reading how it could be formatted, or speculating on how ethically we would go about doing it, or trotting around the Annex to distract ourselves from it – we wanted to go to work and see what it was really like. Orientation Week sharpened our resolve until, this first week of classes, we strode boldly into class to duel the Law and win.
Now, those of you in or past 1L are aware that didn’t happen. Which is great. It’s appropriate, it’s hard, we’re told when we’re wrong and I for one am loving the impetus to do better. But it’s a bit of a shock (yep!), and a lot of money (I’ll admit it!), and a big commitment to finding something to love in this profession. We’re diving into a big murky ocean of unknowns and possibilities for most of us at present.
So Orientation Week was a last little breath before hitting that water and finishing that plunge. We learned some names and phrases, we laid a few foundations for people who are or will be friends, we got reassured by smart people who seemed trustworthy that 1L wouldn’t leave us evil, dead, or insane.
All congratulations and humble thanks to the students and faculty who did a great deal of work for the financially dubious reward of A Job Well Done. As a champagne bottle cracked across the prow of this embarking ship of legal scholars, one couldn’t have asked for better.
Maybe I’ll get the chance to make sure some future 1Ls enjoy the same things not happening next year.
