By Paloma van Groll (3L)
It’s a that fun time of year for Law, right after Follies and right before Ball, when we law students take a moment to enjoy ourselves in a less self-serious way.
Speaking of Follies, it was a genuine delight to see how talented some of our classmates are. Whoa, that lad can sing? And that lass can dance? (or maybe those things enchant me because I can do neither). Now if only we could be a little more like David Shore, who somehow managed to parlay a U of T Law and Law Follies background into a highly lucrative career of making that TV show House.
Follies is a great reflection of the current state of mind of our student body. “As is Ultra Vires, our independent student newspaper,” I pitched the U of T law hopefuls at last week’s Welcome Day.
Meeting doe-eyed prospective students made me feel like a jaded veteran, someone who knows the ropes so well she could tie a sailor’s knot in her sleep (no that’s not some subtle 50 shades reference you weirdos). There was something about their jumpy excitement, their jittery naïveté, their questions about “which extracurriculars I enjoyed the most.” I think I had forgotten how little I knew before beginning law school.
It all flashed before my eyes. 1L, when we were first taught to internalize legal thinking. 2L, where students are churned through the recruitment process or battle the social pressure to participate in it. Moots. Clinics. All the other fun and less fun stuff in between.
At the same time, being awash with that flood of pre-law-school enthusiasm was almost jarring, as a 3L student about to face the real world with a very real amount of debt.
But enough of that dreary debt talk. We’re finally on the right side of winter. Let’s stay positive, after all, we just had a cathartic laugh at all things law, and it’s time to hit the dance floor.
One last thing – next issue, March, is our last of the year. So for all you procrastinators out there, who’ve been thinking of the next great UV article, it’s your last chance to shine. Our March issue is usually teeming with insightful reflections on the year gone by, pragmatic advice from wizened 3Ls and 2Ls for years below, and of course, the odd poem about Bora’s head. We hope to maintain this tradition.
