Orientation is finally over! It is silly because although it was important information, it was nothing spectacular, and yet somehow I still feel accomplished. I'm officially a law student with all the rights and responsibilities therein. Ok so it is heavily weighted to the responsibilities side, but I guess I can live with that.
Let me tell you about the moment everything changed from being an awkward, uncomfortable meeting with lots of strangers to an important gathering with fellow classmates- when we all started moving into our study carrels. How dorky can we be? For those of you that don't know, a study carrel is just a desk with locking drawers, and each law student gets one to use for the year. We were assigned study carrels on Wednesday and that afternoon most people started moving-in. That might sound funny; why would people move-in to a desk? Well for us it is a big step to have all our books in the place where we will be spending A LOT of time. I was assigned carrel #281. During my process of moving in, I started hearing some buzz. "Whoever has #281 is lucky". I was a little confused, but I spoke up. Apparently, I'm the only student in the first year class with a carrel next to a window (the law building is significantly lacking in windows so naturally light is a rare commodity). I was told that my carrel had been named Versailles and that I would get asked to trade by a few people. I politely declined. Still as I meet new people, I'm constantly told how I'm the envy of the class.
After moving in, many of us settled in to do some work. First day assignments are no small task. However, it became more of a social gathering of sorts with everyone getting to know each other a bit. It is finally sinking in that these are the people that I will be spending buckets of time with. I even feel like I could consider one or two of the people in my section friends. It is a nice feeling.
I've met so many people in so short a time and in all sorts of clothing (we had a different dress code for each day: casual, business formal, business casual) that I forget names and even faces so easily. On Friday at the bbq, a guy came up and was talking with me. I remarked how we hadn't formally met and he corrected me. Apparently we had had a long conversation alongside the study carrels the day before which he proved by spouting off several things about me (where I'm from etc.). I now vaguely remember that conversation and feel like an idiot for not realizing that it was him. I plead sleep deprivation (that's valid right?).
On Friday morning, we were supposed to meet with our alumni mentors (real working people). In anticipation of this event, I looked my mentor up online. Her firm had a little paragraph about some of her interests and guess what??!!! She dances ballroom. I was so excited that we had something non-law relate in common...ok ballroom is my least favorite and I would never compete like she did, but she would definitely understand my love of dance. AND THEN....she isn't at the breakfast. It was heart-breaking and pretty anti-climatic. I talked with a different mentor at my table. He practices family law and is passionate about mediation which are both things I've considered doing. However, he has a very negative outlook on life in general. He told me quite clearly that law school was the worst three years of his life. He did not really seem to like his work much although I do think he at least feels that his clients have legitimate claims (he works mostly with fathers trying to get rights to see their kids etc.). Overall, he just seemed very pessimistic. I tend to be optimistic so it was definitely difficult to talk with him. He was very nice though and told me I could contact him anytime even though I wasn't his mentee.
One last thing about orientation ( I know this is getting long). We had one more mock class. It was on the free exercise of religion and it was fascinating. I could do a whole post on the subject but that isn't really the purpose of this blog so instead I'll just give a few things I observed or thought was funny. He started by telling how to think like lawyers. "Your honor-On the day of the murder, my client was not in Chicago; and if he was in Chicago, he was not in the warehouse; and if he was in the warehouse, he did not have a gun; and if he had a gun, it was self-defense". We all laughed and he told he was mostly serious. Lawyers use a form of argument called arguing the alternative and he told us we had better learned to do it right and subtly.
Since he didn't have a class list, he asked for volunteers rather than randomly calling people out. Just like the last mock class, there were those jumping out of their seats to prove themselves. I'm not entirely sure what they are trying to prove. The professor who was teaching is not a first year professor and won't remember if he has people later on. I can only assume that it was an effort to show the rest of the class their stuff. That is I would assume that if I made those sorts of assumptions ;)....Anyway, the professor was merciless in some regards. When asking questions, he would quickly cut anyone who was wrong off with a no and move on to the next person without letting the other finish. One of these questions went on for so long that when someone finally got it right, everyone clapped. Anyone trying to go off on tangents were also cut off with a somewhat exasperated "I just want you to answer the question". The whole class was interesting and I left confident that law school will not be the three most miserable years of my life.
A few brief notes to close out my very long post. I finally moved into my place in Provo today! YAY!!!!! No more sleeping on the couch. I also have a positive food find to report. I had heard of Ezekiel sprout wheat bread before and knew from forums that it is particularly good for people with reactive hypoglycemia. It is flourless. Instead, it is made up of multiple grain sprouts making it more difficult (slower) to process than even whole wheat products aka better for people on a low-carb diet. I got a loaf ($4 ouch). I was skeptical of the taste, but I made a grill cheesed sandwich with it and it was delicious. It has a nutty flavor and isn't dry (although I still suggest drinking with lots of water...hello fiber). Needless to say, this will be the bread that I get most of the time from now on despite the cost. Hint for anyone that wants to try it-look in the frozen foods sections. They have several flavors that range in price, but the one I got is the plain one that is the cheapest.
Love you all!
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