When I accepted Boston College Law School’s offer of admission in 2014, I did not know exactly what to expect from my law school experience. It was the first time since third grade that I was going to show up to school on the first day without knowing a single person.

I woke up at 5 a.m. to drive down to Newton from New Hampshire on the morning of orientation. If I had left after 6 a.m., my dad assured me, I would not make it on time. Throughout the day I got to know the campus and sat through presentations by the Dean and other faculty. They called BC the “Disney World of law schools,” but said that we would also be challenged academically. They spoke of the Jesuit ideals of the quest for knowledge and care for the whole person, the importance of contributing to society and treating your classmates well. At the time, I was hoping what they were espousing would turn out to be true.

I can say with confidence now that all of their assurances were correct. Your classmates do treat you well here, but it is so much more than that. I have made some incredible friends since starting at BC. Many of them I met on orientation day, and we stayed in touch because we were in the same 1L section, or ran into each other at Bar Reviews, or were simply on campus together. Throughout our first year we bonded over the challenges of the 1L workload, studying together and socializing together when we took breaks. We played softball together on Saturdays and visited our new favorite Boston hangouts on Thursdays and Fridays.

When we returned for our second year, we planned a spring break trip almost immediately after the academic schedule came out. We looked forward to it for months, and a few weeks ago, 13 of us found ourselves in Jamaica together. We spent six days and five nights speaking about things unrelated to what initially brought us together, instead sharing stories about jobs held and places visited before law school. We asked and answered silly questions (like who your first celebrity crush was) and played charades (unskillfully). My friends who kept my spirits up during finals literally pulled me up onto the ladder-less water trampoline at the resort. The people who celebrated finishing the writing competition with me congratulated me on finishing my Nicholas Sparks beach-read.

On our last full day on the island we visited a waterfall called the “Blue Hole.” We cheered each other on when we jumped off the ledges into the lagoons below. We helped each other maintain our balance as we climbed up the waterfall, lending a hand when one of us lost our footing.

The adrenaline that came with the last 30-foot jump was incredible, but the bonding that took place with law school friends was even more fulfilling and far less fleeting; after all, lending a hand, keeping each other balanced, and cheering each other on are things we do frequently in the law school setting, too.