Life as a Law Student

Bonjour! 

If you went through my “About the author” tab, you’ll already know that I am currently attending law school at a local institution. 

At the Palace of Justice for a Mooting assignment

When people ask me what I do for a living and I tell them that I’m (still) a law student, there are a couple of reactions that I’ve become accustomed to and let me break them down to you:

1. The fortune tellers.

• Now this is specifically referring to those who says “Wow, a future lawyer”. To which I always respond with a polite smile and an “Insyaallah”, but only God knows my urge to scream out profanities. Now, the normal belief is that people taking law will indeed turn out to become lawyers, and I don’t blame people for thinking so since well- the course itself is “Law” and of course when people think of “Law” they also think about lawyers and their monochrome wardrobe, their black briefcases and how cool they look presenting their case in a court of law. But personally, I get so stressed out when I get this kind of a reaction because it gives me more unnecessary pressure than I already have to bear. It’s stressful enough to be in a course that has so many options for me that choosing a path as a career choice becomes overwhelming. I really do not need the added baggage of pressure called “expectations” because my life has never been about meeting other people’s expectations (and I learned that lesson the hard way, believe me). Now this is again, a personal view for me and probably not all law students feel this way. But I’d appreciate it if people didn’t throw such high expectations in my face, only to burden me with the fear of being a disappointment. 

2.  The Holy Judges.

• This is where people say “Well, people always say lawyers already have one foot in hell”. Strangely enough, this is the remark that I seem to always get from taxi drivers. And no, I’m not joking. Ehem, excuse me monsieur, while it might be true lawyers do have one foot in hell but it doesn’t mean that you’re not already guaranteed a spot over there either. I’m sorry if that sounds rude but people need to really learn to be less disrespectful with their words if they don’t want snappy comebacks. Of course, I have still been polite enough with these so called “uncles” to not reply with whatever that goes running through my head at the moment, but believe me when I say the temptation is strong.  

Of course, there are more but let me just stop there because that’s the most common ones and the most annoying ones as well. So what is it like to actually be a law student? 

Late nights, early mornings, LOTS of caffeine, REALLY expensive books, piles and piles of case laws to be read, constantly worsening eye sight (due to having to read all those cases in bed), converting into an insomniac, a river of tears and constant moments of wanting to just quit and be a hobo. And trust me, I am not over reacting. I am just an average student with a very average CGPA and I blame no one but myself for that because I just don’t have enough will power to risk losing my sanity to hike my CGPA to a measly 3.00. But to my batch mates who managed to maintain a CGPA that’s above a 3.00, well I salute you. Much respect. 

This semester is kinda like a free semester for me because I failed one subject during my exams last semester and our law school operates in a way that is slightly different (as far as I am concerned) from others where in our final year, we are placed in firms and we are exposed to the real life opening files and all those hands on making documents related things so you can’t enter the final year if you don’t pass all your papers from the previous 3 years. So basically, I’m extending a semester because I didn’t pass my Corporate Insolvency paper and I’m re-taking that paper this semester. Hence, why I have so much time on my hands to revive my blog. Aside from focusing on this one subject in the hopes of getting a higher grade so that I can hike up my CGPA, I’ve also been revising some notes from my 1st semester of law school after listening to my friends (who did make it through to the final year) complain about how the lecturers expect them to know and remember everything they’ve learned the past 3 years. Haha. So in a way, I am actually counting my blessings because I kinda have a feeling that if I did had made it into the final year, I’d probably be dead by now. 

Then again, every cloud has a silver lining and I guess after crying and being mad about this one subject that I have to re-take, I finally saw my silver lining and I’m okay with it. I kinda am okay with it. It only sucks on days that I’m bored to death with nothing to do. Aside from that, all is good. 

So to those who are considering of taking law as a path of choice, don’t say I didn’t warn you. It’s not all bad. I actually enjoy it most of the times because I personally like to learn new things. It’s the having to memorize everything word by word and vomiting them out during an exam that I don’t fancy. I don’t like being pressured by a 3 hour time limit with a bunch of elements and defences and case laws that needs to be written down in proper and readable hand writing. So far, I’m just learning to enjoy the journey that I’m already on and make the best of it (while occasionally complain about it). Gotta take the ups with the downs. I'm still not good at this whole "being positive" and "looking at the bright side" thing, but I'm getting there. 

x's and o's