Sai Kulkarni ‘23
Culture Editor
Halloween weekend is always a huge time for parties, fun, and socially acceptable sugar rushes. This past weekend was a true return to form, after a year when we all lost the opportunity to enjoy such basic things. As we wind down for the semester here at the Law Weekly, I wanted to just take the time to talk about this latest series of events and appreciate the good times before the dark days ahead of us known as o**l****g season begin.
As most of my ideas do, this one came to me randomly in the 30 seconds before I set foot in the Law Weekly office this past week. Since achieving 2L status, I have noticed that so much of my time is spent thinking about, planning, and attending parties. Seems like I’m almost spending an entire class’ worth of energy on it.[1] But nothing compares to the energy required in setting up for and hosting parties. As incredibly stressed-out law students, the people that do a public service by opening their homes and hearts really do change lives.[2]
Pictured: Sai Kulkarni ‘23 and Phil Tonseth ‘22
On Halloween weekend, this is doubled. On a daily basis we are all pretending to be real adults who know what we are doing and why. So, during a time when that’s not only welcomed but required, you can bet law students are going all out. Sometimes that includes moving all your furniture out of your living room to create a strobe light dance floor like the denizens of Morris House, aka Paige, Pi, Jackson, and our own lovely Jon Peterson. Whether through hilarious donut-themed duo costumes[3] or several iterations of Olivia Rodrigo, you can bet people showed up hard on that first night. Other notable costumes include three Elles Woods, who jointly won the costume contest.
Much like all of us upon realizing that yes, law school is real, this is happening, the second night of the weekend[4] was more intense than the first. With at least three open pregames[5] leading up to a concurrent Bar Review and party hosted by the 3Ls of Thomson House, it was a lot. Did you know that law students stay up till 4 a.m. for something other than their memos? I know, I was surprised too. Featuring even more intense costumes like a Lizzie McGuire reference, the power couple of Night at the Museum, the hosts dressed as each other, and a Gimli/Legolas duo,[6] people were dressed UP. This party could only be described as a homage to the ragers in high school coming-of-age movies with actors in their mid-twenties: in other words, impressive.
The final night[7] featured a great pregame/party hosted at Alderman House by Lambda and including a fantastic performance by Torts Illustrated. The famous law school band were dressed to the nines as famous rockstars and musicians.[8] The party mixed frat basement with concert with a queer-friendly space to truly amazing results. The night ended with a fantastic house party held by the wonderful Skylar, Elizabeth, and Shivani that had the most unique drink decor of the weekend: everything from Jell-O shots to what I think was green jungle juice. Spooky.
As you can probably tell, I just wanted to use my article space this week to talk about my friends. If you’ve been reading any of my work this semester, you’ll have noticed I try to do that a lot. Here at the Law Weekly, we try to balance serious advocacy with good vibes. I try to max out those good vibes and I hope, dear readers, you’ve been doing the same this semester. I wanted to try to use Halloween as a send-off before hunkering down and joining all of you who’ve been outlining since July. You see, we will all be successful and do well on these exams. But I just wanted to use the space I get every week to just keep things lighthearted and fun. So, make sure to do that yourself at the end of this fun season before we truly get spooked by f***ls.
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omk6cg@virginia.edu
[1] https://www.lawweekly.org/col/2021/9/22/socializing-should-be-a-4-credit-class
[2] By giving people a reason to leave the library.
[3] Shoutout Jon.
[4] Which, contrary to popular belief, is in fact Friday, not Saturday.
[5] Including one held by a Law Review member who put in as much effort in her decorations as her cite checks.
[6] Yes, our lovely Jon was part of this duo too.
[7] I hope none of you deviants went out on Sunday.
[8] Including a great Hannah Montana and a Beetlejuice reference.