A reflection on two memorable weeks
Hi 1Ls! You thought you’d heard the last of us when that final orientation.law@utoronto.ca email hit your inbox, didn’t you?
Remember orientation? That bygone era? In case you are starting to forget a time before club applications, working groups, and wrapping your head around legal versus practical effects, this article is here as a refresher.
Orientation kicked off with the morning presentation, where it was lovely to see you all be such good sports about squeezing into J250. After your law school tours, we split you up into breakout rooms, where you either had guided activities to get to know your peers or informal chats with upper-year volunteers.
Our first event was trivia, where we were pleasantly surprised by your fervent enthusiasm to be correct – even when you were not (and especially when we were not). The winning team was able to snag some well-earned law school merch. We finished off your first week with a mixer at Twist Gallery. Eye of the aesthete or not, we hope you were able to fill up on dinner (oh, the days before pizza lunches), and enjoy the gallery’s convenient location. Over the weekend, we left you to be free and do as you pleased, with a couple of recommendations sent your way.
The second week started off with bingo, where amidst the frustration from just being one or two chips away, a few lucky victors emerged to claim their law school merch. Next up was Lawlympics, where after figuring out the challenge wasn’t actually navigating yourselves around the building, you competed in a series of small games against each other. There was anger, there was sadness, there was grit, there was determination, there was—at times—questionable levels of sportsmanship, and alongside all of that, we loved seeing your team spirit and competitive streaks come out. Congratulations to the green team for their victory, we hope you’re still riding the high of being the first Lawlympics champions!
Throughout orientation, we tried to keep you guys fed with a variety of snacks. While not everything was premium (hey, take it up with the school if you want them spending their shiny new $80 million on endless Kinder Bueno), we’ll take the consistently emptied out buckets as a win. You also had your bingo sheets to fill out, which was hopefully a fun way to get to know your cohort.
We hope, for your sakes, that our last day together wasn’t overshadowed by the daunting pass/pass Legal Methods exam. And if it really did manage to get to you that badly, we hope you were able to sop up your sorrows with some free ice cream. We ended orientation with a full-stadium Blue Jays game. We hope you were able to relax, watch the sunset, and not take their defeat as a grave omen for the start of “real” law school.
It was exciting to welcome all of you to the U of T Law community. We hope you take all the highs and lows of your legal journey with an assured mind, and we remind you that within the chaos of applications, assignments, grades, and jobs, it really comes down to the bonds you venture to make, and how you make people feel. Good luck!
