For those of you who are willing to cast off the shackles of case reading, map-making and OCI prep for at least one night a week, you’ll remember that we all had a lovely pub night at Pilot a few weeks back. What I remember most from that night, aside from the $9 beers and my empty wallet the next morning (thanks, Yorkville!), was that I met a great group of 1Ls I’d never had the pleasure of hanging out with before. We spent a large part of the night drinking, carousing and generally having a good time. And a scant three weeks later, not only could I not tell you a single one of their names, but I have yet to even see any of them again. Turns out they were in section 1… the OTHER section.
Now, I’m well aware that it’s only the end of October and that the sections will dissolve after 1L. I’m hopeful that the mixed classes of 2 and 3L will open up vast new social horizons. But until then, it just seems strange to me that there is an entire other half of the 1L class that I simply won’t have the opportunity to really get to know this year. This is of course save for a few exceptions — I managed to scoop up at least a couple of token Section 1 friends (thanks, small group!).
Arguably, the Transition Space is partially to blame for this. The Law Student Lounge in Birge Carnegie is a valiant effort, but it’s clear that it has, so far at least, failed to act as a powerful social hub, at least for 1Ls. Just check out the this month’s cover story for proof of that unfortunate fact. But I find it hard to believe that were we all still cooped up together in the old Flavelle dungeon, the added ability to cursorily wave and/or nod at section 1-ers as they walk to different classes than me would have resulted in a much stronger bond between the two sections.
It’s also a little disconcerting knowing that so many social circles in 1L are largely determined by this seemingly random 50/50 split. Would my tenure at U of T have been completely different had I ended up in Section 1? It would have meant, at least for this year, different friends, different relationships, different parties, different study groups, different everything. But there’s no point dwelling on that. It would seem to me the takeaway from this is that if us first years are going to be a true 1L class — instead of two ½L classes — we’re going to need to be more active in seeking out our peers from other sections.
Or at least set up a second weekly pub night.
