"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not!"
To prepare for my first Civil Procedure class, I had to complete my Professor’s Intro Survey. To the question, “What is something that you love so much you will do it over and over?” I responded, “Watch Derry Girls.” However, my real response is “Doom scroll on TikTok.” When I had more free time this summer, I browsed through LawSchoolTok, TravelTok, and BookTok.
While some creators on LawSchoolTok emphasized how important it is to relax before 1L starts, others shared tips for resume writing and networking events. Both sides were satisfied when I volunteered to sort donations at The Midnight Mission in downtown Los Angeles every Monday. This once-weekly commitment allowed me to build community with those impacted by the housing crisis and contemplate landlord/tenant law as an area I may want to practice in the future while granting me enough free time to sufficiently “break” before school started. Towards the end of the summer, though, I increased my commitment and began volunteering as an English literacy tutor in the shelter’s education and career department every Wednesday.
From TravelTok, I learned the best places to visit internationally and locally. When I traveled to Puerto Vallarta with my mom and sister in mid-June, for instance, that side of TikTok led us to one of the best beaches we have ever visited, Conchas Chinas. When we returned to Los Angeles, TravelTok guided my best friend and me to different places and experiences that made me feel like a tourist again. We visited several coffee shops to determine which one made the best-iced matcha lattes (1. Meccha Matcha in Cerritos, 2. Coffee Code in Norwalk, and 3. Stereoscope in Long Beach), saw a gaggle of geese as we rode bikes through El Dorado Park, and enjoyed concerts at the Hollywood Bowl.
Finally, BookTok allowed me to rediscover my love for reading and stay on track with my Goodreads 2024 Reading Challenge. Before Garratt v. Dailey and Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 24, there was The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri and Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami. Although my reading this Fall was more academic than recreational, I have added many books to my TBR, or To Be Read shelf, that I plan on getting to after surviving (maybe even thriving) through finals, such as The Little Liar by Mitch Albom and The Eye by Vladimir Nabokov.
TOPICS: 1L