Law so hard (Motherf***kers wanna fine me)

Mitchell Hollman

Let’s be honest with ourselves: life is a party. Even when you’re studying law. It’s even better when we fuse these two things together – and have pre’s before the study! That’s exactly what law camp is, over a longer period. Two nights of solid pre-drinking? Sounds like an Eastern European Wedding to me. But hey, I’m not complaining. I went, and it was totally hectic cuz. The perfect way to start off the year.

The long and short of it is this: 130 freshers crammed into three buses two Fridays ago now, to head down the coast for a bit of the ol’ slap and tickle (interpret that how you will). After three and a half hours of making as much distance between ourselves and those who might take discrediting photographs of us taking part in this exercise of excess, we piled into Camp Kangaroobie—attended for over 30 years by Camberwell Grammar School, for those who are interested.

We were introduced to the executive committee of the Law Student    Society, and then directed inside for TRIVIA. I GODDAMN LOVE TRIVIA. A chance to demonstrate the virtue of all the useless knowledge that helped me in absolutely no way while I studied for the LSAT, but certainly made me feel better at the Queensbury on a Thursday night. Antinomy? Yes! But it doesn’t matter – got in anyway. YOLO! Or Carpe Diem for those with the highest of brows.

Naturally this led to a good degree of lubrication across the cohort who made it down, and before long costumes were put on – Heroes and villains for the first night. We had X-Men, Musketeers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Heisenberg, Tin Men, Fairies, Hermione Grangers, Footy legends, Sailor Scouts (All 10, minus The Tuxedo, as far as I’m aware), Goku, Supermen and Superwomen; you get the idea. Everyone loves a good costume party, especially when you’re out to make new mates. It levels the playing field someway, everyone is a bit silly and everyone is entitled to a good giggle at the expense of anyone else, and so what! Laughter is one of the key ingredients of bonding. From the window to the wall – from Trivia to the D-Floor: ‘Gus’ as he is known on Facebook laid down some wicked beats and before you knew it, it was 4am and Henry Dow was the last man standing. For those who know Henry, I bet that’s no surprise.

At this point, I must praise the Law Student Society. No less than an hour after we arrived, a drink was in everyone’s’ hand and many people were reaching for a second. They supplied – and they supplied a lot. Huxtaburgers for tea with special sauce and delicious whole egg mayo (I’m also a mayo connoisseur for those interested, a consequence of being Dutch), then lamb casserole on the second night.
 
AND, GET THIS: At 1am on both Saturday and Sunday morning, they prepared late night spaghetti. This is the single best thing that’s ever happened to me (and the other 129 of us, I’m sure) in the history of organized boogies. A little bit of protein, a few carbs, get the belly settled before bed, or give you the energy to keep going for hours more. God bless these kitchen saints for their hospitality.
 
Other than the sippin’ and the wigglin’, we went down to Port Campbell on the Saturday and spent a few hours at the beach. It’s a lovely little town Port Campbell, and as I’d never been further than the Twelve Apostles down the Great Ocean Road, it was good to extend my range of adventures, and have a solid nap on the beach while nursing my hangover with Gatorade and sunlight.
 
On the second night, probably the best event of the whole camp went down: the Dance-Off. Eight teams, eight themes. One minute excerpt of classic songs, and thirty minutes to choreograph an accompanying dance. Gangstas engaged in turf warfare against creatures from Under the Sea, Jungle Animals roared at Bollywood dancers, Cheerleaders and Jocks waved their Pom-Poms.
 
In the end, it was the Jungle Animals who won with their choreography to ‘I Just Can’t Wait to Be King’ from the Lion King; but a special mention must go to those who did ‘Under the Sea’ from The Little Mermaid; we finally found out what happened to Harold Holt! Everyone gets points for creativity.

Overall, Law Camp 2015 was an excellent event to be at; well-organized and a lot of fun. Friendship were both made and strengthened, many a bevie was drunk, and many an embarrassing pose was struck. Special thanks as always to the LSS for organizing the event, and thanks to everyone who went and made the experience the memorable episode it was.
 
Mitchell Holman is a first-year JD student.