Orientation

So far, there isn't much to dislike about law school (not that I've even started classes yet). What has distinguished this phase of my life from others so far is the ease of making friends. Once you get past the obligatory usual introductions (name, undergrad, home city/state), you either find you have nothing to say and move on to the next 1L, or you make a great friend. I've never before in my life had an automatic pool of friends where you expect everyone to get along with everyone else, and while those speakers who, at orientation, painted an almost scary picture of how intertwined all of our lives will be with everyone else's lives from now on, it's really quite enjoyable. The law building is beautiful and the town is not as bad as everyone told me it would be. In fact, I have quite an affection for it in some ways (and the Sound is beautiful).

Orientation was actually really useful and kind of even fun. I was a History major in undergrad, and I'm sorry to report the speech on the history of the law school was the most boring of the lot during orientation. Professor Alstott spoke on her book and her views on family law, and being perviously unfamiliar with any of it, it actually shocked me. Another professor who gave us a speech surprised me again simply by opening his mouth - where I come from, people who sound gay (to put it crassly) didn't hold important roles like that. I thought the east coast wouldn't be that much of an adjustment, but I was wrong in quite a few ways. To clarify: I'm not as conservative as my background and I'm not implying a value judgment on stripping the family of its economic role or on homosexuality. And no, I didn't come to Yale thinking it would be like the midwest.

I have a weekend of reading ahead of me, which is slightly daunting considering we haven't even had one class yet. Spending more than $500 on casebooks was not fun, but I'm eager to start something I've been planning on doing for a long time: studying law.