New Beginning

Sorry that I have been away for a while. Things has been really crazy, as I'm sure you can imagine. In the past week, Boyfriend and I moved into our new apartment, organized everything, found our favorite Starbucks, half worked out parking and other everyday living issues, had countless emotional discussions about my experience in law school, all of which took my energy away from posting an update of my life.

Today was the first day of orientation.

I met my classmates. They were really fine -- less diverse than I thought (but perhaps I just ended up with a particularly un-diverse group). Lots of people from California. There was one other girl from my undergraduate school, who graduated in the same year. After talking for a while we even identified a couple of people that we both knew.

Quite a few older students, too. It seems like everyone was 25 or 26. I thought I would feel old in law school. I didn't.

I have always disliked the self-conscious and awkward chit-chats of orientation -- "Where are you from?" "Where did you go undergrad?" "What did you do since graduation?" Everyone knows that real friendship only begins after classes begin, since that's when people buckle down and those differences in personality and lifestyle really begin to matter. So what's the point of asking everyone these questions anyway, when you know that your brain can't possibly hold all this info and you would forget 10 seconds after walking away from the person?

So I tried my best to avoid this kind of talk, and perhaps to some I was a little too non-committal. Ah well, they have 3 years to change that impression of me.

I did get into an in-depth conversation with a girl from a famous California school who has moved across the country with her husband and who has already done most, if not all, of the readings for our criminal law class for the entire year. Really liked her, actually. She seemed genuine and grounded and smart.

Orientation also involved a lot of being herded around. The prof gave a long speech in the beginning of the day about how great law school is and how we shouldn't be afraid to be subjected to the Socratic Method. Some people actually pulled out a notebook and took notes, while I just sat around feeling slightly bored, and then caught myself and surprised that I was bored. Was I always this jaded? I remember that in college, I may well have been one of those people who pulled out a notebook and took notes. Did 4 years of being out of college changed me and made me jaded? But everything the profs said sounded really obvious. I am still waiting for the real class to begin.

At certain points the orientation seemed a little disorganized. Like the "tour" we took around the campus was a joke, and our leader clearly didn't plan this very well.

Then we sat down and had a picnic. It was a beautiful day, and I looked around and felt amazed that this day has arrived so quickly. I'm really a law student! I will come to call this institution home. I will know these people around me well. I will be familiar with this city, navigate it with authority, and perhaps come to feel affection for it.

I am going to be here for the next three years.