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I attended my first law school event and I loved it.

I couldn’t help but wonder why I hadn’t done this earlier? Why had I taken so long – three years to be exact – to convince myself to attend one of the law school’s social events? 

Last Friday, the AULSS held their annual quiz night in North Adelaide with the theme Hollywood. We were encouraged to come along to the event dressed up as a movie/tv character or celebrity. Now I love all three of those things – trivia, pop culture and dressing up, so of course I couldn’t miss the opportunity to join in on the fun. Besides, I’ve had a busy week of quizzes and assignments so all the more reasons to go out on a Friday night and let loose a little. 

After hours on the phone with my sister trying to figure out who or what I should go as, I finally set my heart upon Saoirse Ronan’s character in Lady Bird. Since it was one of my favourite films of all time, it felt right to pay homage to this flawed and hard-headed teenager. Carrie (White, not Bradshaw, although both are iconic in their own ways) was a close second, but I just didn’t feel like committing to drenching one of my dresses in fake blood.

Besides, Lady Bird’s outfit was relatively easy to replicate considering I already had most of the items in my closet anyway. So, after spending about 20 mins struggling to colour my arm cast with a cheap pink highlighter and putting on some final touches, my friend and I walked over to the quiz night. I must say, I was impressed his $5 Spotlight blonde wig (he was Barbie) didn’t get scooped up by the heavy winds during our walk. 

I met up with a couple more friends and we got to answering some questions. We lost, unfortunately, but it didn’t really matter because I was just so happy that I got to do something fun with friends after going through a very mundane week. We sang our hearts out to Miss Swift during the dance breaks and ate our way through the free fries and wedges. It was one of those things where I was so nervous about going and at one point thought about bailing out which, if it boiled down to it, I wouldn’t have done so anyway because I paid $25 for the ticket. Above all, I didn’t want to let my social anxiety get the best of me! I’ve overcome it countless times before, I won’t let it win this time.

That night taught me that if you don’t allow yourself to get out of your comfort zone or move past your insecurities, you might miss out on a lot of memorable experiences and opportunities. I thought I would hate it, but I went for it anyway and ended up having a lot of fun losing at trivia.