Dandelion (and the early days of Law School)

This was a post I never published, months ago:

I never did the Greek/Rush thing in college so I never had to experience hazing while joining a social environment. However, law school has privileged me with the opportunity to be minorly hazed. (nothing too bad, don't worry).

At the beginning of the year, there was so much focus on being social. We had two days of orientation before classes started on a Wed (see next post about doing my first law school homework assignment). Our Peer Advisors, who are 2nd and 3rd year law students wrote up our social and academic schedule on a chalk board (yes, a chalk board) and asked us to copy it down. They had everything from potlucks to mixers, tailgates, and horse races and polo matches planned for us. Was this really grad school? Were the people in that room going to be my friends for the next three years?

I was quite nervous looking around the room. I didn't really see people who I thought were like me. How many of these people were actually my age and how many people had taken time off after college to go accomplish things with their lives? All I could think about those first two days of orientation was, "crap I'm going to be stuck with these 30 kids for the next two semesters." To say the least, my perceptions of the crowd changed quickly. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that I thought I was any better than the next person, but I was legitimately worried about making new friends again. I love people but making long-term friends is an investment. I generally have an easy time making friends however for the last four years, I've had my group of friends and that was that. I was comfortable. I loved my friends and now I was me on my own in a new(ish) place. Granted I know Cville like the back of my hand (certainly better than my hometown since I wasn't allowed out much).

Anyways, onto the substance of this post. At the end of our second week of school was the Dandelion Parade. Yes, we would be participating in a parade. What the what?! Each section (for non-law schoolers, this means the group of 30 people that you take all of your classes with for the first year in school. Our 1L class of 360some people is divided up into 12 sections titled A through L) was to put together some sort of skit to be performed for an audience of 2 and 3Ls who would vote on our skits via cheers. § E (the best section of them all) put together an Eminem mash up of 3 or 4 songs with the lyrics rewritten to incorporate law lingo and a humorous twist on case names.

After Contracts class let out on that Friday, we headed down to an apartment to pregame and returned to the site of the parade for a wild performance which culminated in our 83-year old Torts professor coming out raising the roof and dancing around to "My name is" by Eminem.

All in all, it was a good beginning to a year with the section and I began to realize that I was actually having fun in my new environment and making friends.