First Day Jitters

Last week my firm had an orientation kickoff event in San Francisco for the summer associates in all of the offices. Even though it may sound cheesy, it actually turned out wonderfully. Meeting everybody else in the summer class made today, my first day, much less painful.

On our first day in San Francisco, we were split into teams to participate in this super fun scavenger hunt called The Go Game. Even though it got a little crazy running around the streets of San Francisco (the coordinators actually warned us that people get so into it they forget to obey the fundamental kindergarten "look both ways before crossing" rule!), it was a lot of fun to indulge in a bit of the competitive spirit. There were clues sent to each team via cell phone that had us running to street corners and finding the answers to such curiosity-piquing clues as "Go up the alley along Margrave Place about 50 yards. Be stealthy and climb the 10 stair steps on the right hand side. Right in front of you is one of the rarest sights to behold in San Francisco." The answer? A swimming pool! There were also such interpretive clues that inspired creativity such as "In a series of pictures, show your team being daredevils!" One of the team's interpretations showed a hilarious series of the entire team rolling down the asphalt hills of San Francisco. Good times.

There were also the expected "orienting" talks such as one discussing the transition from law student to lawyer and another discussing harassment. The latter was actually a little fun because the approach was interactive where we placed scenarios along a "Green light, Yellow light, Red light" spectrum according to whether we thought it was "Okay, Use Caution, or HELL NO." Calling things red/yellow light now seems to be the punchline of the summer.

While it may sound trivial, this all culminated in easing the pressure of today's first day. As I changed outfits twice and put on two different sets of jewelry before deciding on my trusty graduation present pearls, I realized that the first day jitters were just not there. Why's that? After having met everyone on the San Francisco trip (and, thankfully, liking them all!!), there was no first-day-of-school-is-everyone-going-to-like-me? feeling going into today's Big Day. So, while it might be a little daunting to go into something completely new that I've never done before (Business and finance transactional law? What's that?), it's at least a little reassuring to know that the people I'll be with will make it an (enjoyable) experience to remember.