Last night I attended my first Loyola Law School event–a general information session for incoming students. Did I feel super cool walking onto campus as one of the newest students? Yes. Was it invigorating to walk across the quad with a sense of purpose rescuing me from my recent boredom? Yes. Will I feel cool or invigorated for much longer? I don’t think so.
The first segment of the information session: open discussion panel with current students. Second: financial aid presentation. Third: open discussion with alumni who’ve made it through the three years of library lockdown.
Some of the highlighted advices received were to pick your favorite spot in the library and try to remain there for nine months (the advisor, an alumni, was not joking, saying you can measure whether you’re doing right or wrong by whether you’re in that spot or not); to relax this summer, while you can, which is harder than you think for the eager people like me; to not plan any trips or side activities or really anything because you probably won’t have time; and finally, to not worry about not having a clue because nobody does. The latter was the biggest relief to me who knows she’s not the sharpest tool in the law school shed.
But regardless of all this, I am so freaking excited that the word “Relax” makes me anxious. How can I relax? I’m about to enter into the biggest challenge of my life! Forget dodging drunk beggars in Hoima, Uganda, forget pitching to the Japanese National Team, forget the 38 hours I spent awake for finals my first semester during freshman year–that’s bound to double! Bring it on!
Hearing all this hard-to-swallow advice about relaxing is making me think twice about this outlook though. It’s like I’m looking at a lion saying, “Oh, how cute! I wanna pet it!” Maybe it will take my hand getting bitten off, or a caffeine-induced coma, to knock some sense into me, but until then, I’m a raging bull in the corner, hopping back and forth on my tippy toes ready to go.
I learned a lot as a Florida Gator and I’m ready to learn more as a Loyola Lion. The saying in the Swamp is that only Gators make it out alive… but what about the Lions’ Den?
