I had the pleasure of competing on the 2025 Osgoode Cup this weekend, Canada’s largest undergraduate moot competitors. The Cup takes this iconic image of all of the rivals sitting and listening to the Day One opening handle; whereas I stare at that image, the sheer scale of the Canadian moot panorama turns into so clear. That image jogs my memory that this factor – to me, my habit, pastime and guru – holds a particular place in different individuals’s hearts too. It is also a beautiful reminder of what extracurriculars and community-building actions can do once they have the monetary help and established title just like the Osgoode Cup does.
This was my ninth moot competitors. Once I was sharing this with my fellow rivals, it made me notice how a lot time I’ve invested on this amorphous “factor” and what number of recollections I’ve comprised of it and classes I’ve realized from it. I’ve additionally had the privilege of accumulating lots of {hardware} from my competitions, a few of which I maintain on this outdated shoebox in my closet. Each bit of {hardware} has it is personal feeling hooked up to it.
You realize that query, “If your home is burning down, what are the 5 belongings you’d run into the home and take with you?” Once I began out mooting, certainly one of my trophies would doubtless have made my prime 5. I might have instructed you that the trophy jogged my memory of the way it felt to see your exhausting work repay, and could be symbolic motivation for me to maintain going. And so they nonetheless do symbolize this stuff to me. However this weekend, I spotted I actually would not and should not hassle attempting to select up what’s, at it is core, a bit of steel.
What I’d run again right into a burning home to seize is my moot pocket book. I have been utilizing it to make moot notes since my second competitors, which means at this time it pages are canvassed with case references I now not keep in mind, a number of underlines and circling, and scrabbly one-word notes from after I’ve gotten questions on competitors day. It is barely discernable. However that pocket book to me is the spirit and coronary heart of my moot recollections. Flipping again via the pages is like flipping again via time.
And you understand what’s humorous? I am going to put together my submissions and costume up for competitors day to look all “lawyer-like”, skilled and stoic. However my moot pocket book – this must-have for me – is a kind of DIY Motivational-type Scrapbooking notebooks the place you write down your life targets and adorn it with stickers and people fancy formed paper clips (these all got here with the pocket book, however I am not a lot of a decorator). Versus matching the skilled and stoic manner I attempt to placed on, my pocket book reads “Love the life you lead” and is embossed with gold flowers making for this philosophical, motivational cowl. It feels so misplaced.
Not like dwelling issues which exude life, objects and objects must be given life. No matter if they’re made to look or really feel a sure approach, they imply one thing as a result of they’re provided that which means. And after I take into consideration what a trophy means to me over what that pocket book means to me, the quantity of ink on these pages displays the quantity of life I’ve embedded into it. I’ve poured a lot of myself into it that’s now has this human-like high quality to it.
Essentially the most human factor about my pocket book is that it displays not simply the variety of rounds I’ve gained, however the variety of rounds I’ve misplaced (rather a lot!). Once I re-read some notes I’ve made, I keep in mind the frustration and confusion I felt in these moments.
Within the case of A Piece of Steel v. The Pocket book SCC (2025), the winner is the Respondent (The Pocket book).
