Five years ago, I wrote a tribute to Menton. Back then, I wrote “Menton is a bubble, an enclave where the rest of the world disappears, a parallel universe populated with only 300 people. It’s a place where you can’t hide - if you make a mistake you live with it, you are forced to face it head-on, spending 10 hours a day staring at the person who you got into a fight with the night before.” I had not anticipated returning to such an environment, constantly existing in the public eye, your free time devoured by classes, clubs, and mandatory events spent in the company of the same 50 people, where the concept of privacy becomes almost comical.
Unlike Menton, Columbia is not a beach paradise; we are sequestered in two oppressive buildings with a library reminiscent of a modern bastion. You forget what daylight looks like after yet another day of breaking free of campus at 8pm, the night ahead filled with the looming task of conquering crim and conlaw. We exist in a Russian Doll loop, starting again each morning over only to be drowned under the weight of whatever new challenge each lovely day brings.
Through this cycle, though, we find our tribe. There exists a camaraderie in our shared struggle, a built family with whom to find delight in exciting case facts, read over externship and clinic applications, and relish occasional moments of freedom at firm events, bar reviews, and dinner parties, amidst the otherwise seemingly endless days (and for me, the hundreds of hours of Jessup). We can’t step out of campus directly onto a beach, but the city offers its own escape–a quick subway ride throws us into a tapestry of overlapping, bewitching cultures–that is, if you can get a CLS student to leave Morningside.
We live in a fantasy world, filled with firms that seduce you with gourmet food and promises of a future of inexhaustible wealth, and accented by a collective moment of elation at 3:30pm and a groan following the smell of pizza wafting out of your planned lunch event. It is a madhouse of similarly inclined nerds, where ambition and passion is a common language. Each one of us is here for a reason. At Columbia Law I was offered the chance to be reborn, with the inability to hide forcing genuine growth. It has guided me to my people–those who share my quirks and values, challenge me, keep me accountable, and built me up when things were very not good. Reiterating what I said all those years ago, “you either come to terms with who you are, put up a facade to impress those around you, or you become mindful of who you are and make changes for the better.” We are trying our best.
mornings with Max and the early morning crew with our free Warren breakfasts
scoping out lunch events with Dimitri
entertaining myself with my bingo board
being ridiculously overcommitted in clubs and and reveling in it
nonstop texts throughout class in 8+ separate groupchats
lenfest loops with Meghan (“surely”)
documenting the most depressing and absurd Lee quotes
chaotic firm events with unlimited free food and alcohol (followed by bar review)
shaking at the prospect of an Emens cold call
dinner parties with everflowing wine and intricate cheese plates
competitive geography games with Dimitri in torts
giggling at Max’s hot takes and his facetious back-and-forths with Jasmine
enjoying law revue more than I’d like to admit
subjecting Tor and Bassam to truly everything in my life
red wine in Lenfest
meghan and I trying not to cry in crim (and failing a vast majority of the time)
spending hours in the library, dancing, pining, occasionally studying
valentines day packages for all of my friends
dancing on the LES until my feet ache
bridgerton & indian food at Jessup international rounds (& oh so much jessup in general)
laps at dodge in triathalon preparation
the pride of creating coveted outlines scrapped together from years past (thank you sugarman)
matching pigeons with Hunter
collective dread of LPW
senate parties, from laps on Halloween to nonstop dancing on Valentine’s Day to sequestering in the anxiety room at Barristers
the beginning of daily collages!!!
proudly watching Jasmine debate every single male professor & lust after the women
inappropriately laughing so hard in class that we cannot breathe
nicotine and gab breaks with Joseph
rediscovering the piano and reteaching myself how to play
my embarrassingly loud computer fan
the encampments?!