Cold, But ‘Better Than a Cold Call’
Jonathan Hawley, ’17, stepped out onto the Midway Plaisance Park Ice Rink as a small cadre of his classmates looked on. It was the San Diego native’s first time ice skating, and he was considering letting himself fall just “to get it over with on my own terms.”
Several of his friends extended their arms a couple of feet away from the wall. He inched toward them, everyone laughing as they debated a quandary that, for once, wasn’t rooted in statutes or case law.
“If we all get around him, maybe we can hold him up,” a classmate said.
He looked at his skate-clad peers. “I feel like you’re all moving further away,” he said.
It was the Law School’s annual Ice Skating on the Midway event, which is part of a Winter Quarter Wellness program sponsored by the Dean of Students Office. About two dozen students skated with the Bigelow Fellows and Professor R.H. Helmholz, the Ruth Wyatt Rosenson Distinguished Service Professor of Law, who brought his own 50-year-old skates.
The Wellness events, which have included talks on financial fitness and resilience, as well as a tour of the Oriental Institute, provide a fun respite from study. Each is worth 10 Keystone points in the “Well-Rounded Lawyer” category. The final sessions, a yoga class and a stress-management seminar, will be offered on March 4.
“We were all up in the library counting down the minutes until this started,” said Amy Barber, ’17, who grew up in Montana playing ice hockey on an all-boys team. “It’s a nice break from everything.”
For Hawley, it was a chance to have a little fun and try something new.
“They told me that coming to the Law School would put me outside my comfort zone. I didn’t know they meant it this literally,” he said, laughing. “It’s still better than a cold call.”