Well, it’s officially been a year at my not-so-new-anymore law school. Given the state of the world, it actually feels like I’ve been to three law schools in the last two years: my 1L school, BC, and the Zoom School of Law. This certainly isn’t the “transfer experience” I would have chosen, but that’s true for every person in the world right now experiencing this bizarre era in which we live.

I won’t lie, it’s been a weird year. I felt like right about the time I started to get adjusted to school and feel comfortable, it all got pulled out from under me and we switched to remote learning. Reflecting on this experience is difficult because of the truncated school year. But what I do know is this:

I made the right choice transferring to BC Law. It wasn’t a hard choice, or even one that took me a long time to make. But it was scary. And I didn’t have a single friend at BC when I decided to transfer. So in many ways it was a gamble that I could do it all over again like I had in 1L. I could make friends, get good grades, figure out professors’ quirks, navigate a new legal market, and try to leave my mark…again.

And I can report back two semesters later, I did. It wasn’t exactly how I planned, and it took a profound amount of energy, but I did it. I have made wonderful life long friends who are teaching me to be a better person every day. I worked to put on some great events with BC Law Democrats. I successfully made it through OCI. I competed and did fairly well in the 2L moot court competition. I formed and was asked to join study groups. I had people to sit with at lunch every day. I spent the spring semester working in the BC Legal Service LAB Civil Litigation Clinic as a student attorney. I became a contributor to this blog.

And then the world ended.

Had I known then what I know now about how BC handled the academic response to COVID-19 and how hard our professors would work to make online classes not a total dumpster fire, I would have had no doubt that BC was the right place to be when this all went down. Our school’s leadership and faculty worked tirelessly to make sure that the students were as least harmed as possible. They solicited our feedback on all things remote teaching, adjusted their class models, and made themselves even more available to us than they might have under normal circumstances.

My professor mentors have offered to have check-in calls with me to say hi and be a sounding board through this uncertainty. My friends from all different circles at school check in on each other every couple days. It’s been a real source of comfort to know that even in the haze of remote learning and social distancing, people are still connected.

I risked a lot when I transferred, and my gamble paid off in dividends. My last word on my transfer experience to anyone who is considering BC as a second, or even a first, law school, is that when I jumped, the BC Legal Eagle community caught me. And although it took some time for me to feel fully at home, I know that moving back to Boston, going to BC, and choosing to associate myself with our law school’s legacy was the best call I have made in a very long time.

Tatiana-Rose Becker is a rising third-year student and former transfer to BC Law. She loves to hear from readers: email her at beckerta@bc.edu.