Full stop

Yesterday marked a pretty significant day for me. The end of a year in the retail industry. The reason why I quit? Simple. I'm focusing on more important things now. Besides, I need my weekends. =)

Got my thinking cap on.

Looks like I'm gonna be thinking for the longest time.

A change would do you good

Done are we with the National Election frenzy. Results are out. And as far as I am concerned, what is done…is inevitable done. Some are still in shock, some overjoyed and some…are preparing for an Emergency. As for me, I didn’t specifically fit in a specific slot on Saturday to camp out in the living room with coffee and junk food (it would have been so…un-hip of me), but thinking back, I regret not of the decision I made, I have the right to see what the future would bring.

700, 000 newly registered voters this elections and wow! That really brought a change. Didn’t it? See…change…the word isn’t all that bad. To be different, to vary. Hmm…in this context, a more appropriate word would be: to exchange. By 5 a.m., the checklist given to all us avid readers of the Star was partially complete. In order to put our minds to rest, we had to do a lil’ math to figure out the slight ‘difference’ which brought extravagant change. See…its that word again, change!

It was weird to have tucked myself to bed with all these weird political dialogues still playing in my head, “government, opposition…ink….argh!” But then Sheryl Crow came to the rescue, when she sang in rather chirpy, motivating manner. “A change would do you good…” And there it is folks…a change.

For good or bad, let’s just weigh it by instilling a proper mentality. Let’s be open to it. Let’s accept it…no, I didn’t mean the ‘come what may’ attitude, but let us be rational about this. Some may quickly claim so and so will lead to this and that. Yes…yes….It’s human nature to get all paranoid.

But I believe as amazed we are of the outcomes of the recent elections, hold your horses! The fun ain’t over yet. So let us observe…and we’ll bring about more changes. How’s that for a start?

Law school and the journey so far: The point of view of an average law student

I would like to remember that at the time I wrote this, I was having a splitting headache and my eyelids were so heavy that I’d be able to put a narcoleptic to a challenge! But something inside has urged me to write things as they are, as soon as they happen. Though this would be utterly impossible for me to do as even at this moment, I’m trying my best to multitask. Only thing is, not everything can be done through multitasking like sleeping, for instance. Can anyone in their right mind sleep and prepare their tutorials simultaneously? Lame example but it’s the cold hard truth! So even as an avid believer of the many wonders of multitasking, there comes a point where you get into situations where it wouldn’t make sense to multitask. Right before I started writing this, I was in the midst of compiling a take home test which drove me out of bed until 4 a.m. and now that it is over and done with, the thought of relaxing is nowhere in my mind as I start to cringe at the thought of the other tests and assignments pending the week after which would probably stretch until the end of next month and oh, what about lectures and tutorials? And my head starts working again but today, I am going to ignore the ten thousand other things pending in my task list and pay a little more attention to my inner feelings. Yes, the ultimate source of my write up is my inner feelings and not a stack of books and journals. And to some who feel that they might have lost their souls as law students, I urge you not to feel that way. Being a law student is supposed to be a good thing, a blessing. Of course, everyone will suffer (regardless the intensity), but in the end of the day, you will benefit from it. Eventually. And this is when I should start to say, “Slowly but surely,” and “every grey cloud has a silver lining,” but I won’t get into that. There are enough posters and bookmarks in the market which could assist in giving words of encouragement.

Three years ago, while I was contemplating whether or not to enrol into law school, no one really had much to say about my decision as it was a known fact that there was always a tagline which existed for anyone who had any ideas of becoming a law student, that ‘you should enroll into law school at your own risk.’ Sigh…Well, I admit to the fact that most law students live a stressful life. But that is the life we chose to live, so rather to make live a living hell, it would be much better to be a little more optimistic about it.

In this sense, I am speaking out of experience. My first year in law school, all hell broke loose when I failed a paper which to me was fundamental. That was enough to demotivate me, to the point where I considered packing my bags and walking out of this course. That’s where friends came into the picture. It has always been a debate as to whether quantity or quality is better but at that point, I was grateful if I had any. Up until today, I will never be able to thank them enough for stopping me from walking out. It could have been the worst decision I have ever made in my life.

In my second year, I still dreaded the idea of the paper I had to re-sit. But deep down I felt that if I were to take it as something so difficult, then it will be difficult. And if I had, instead been a little more optimistic about it, the burden of sitting for the same paper all over again would not be as heavy. I considered it a blessing in disguise, a chance to redeem myself although I prayed hard this ‘chance to redeem’ wouldn’t occur too often in years to come. In addition to that, the second year was known as the year where most ‘killer’ subjects would be introduced. Well, its only when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. Tutorial classes, to me, were like battlefields where you either equip yourself with the right tools or you get shot down! This would mean that it didn’t matter whether you were ‘born’ smart or just plain hardworking (it amazes me how laws students classify themselves these days!) you would still need to go through a similar process: preparation. In my view, preparation will help you become lawyers with substance rather to ‘loyar buruk’ yourself out sticky situations where your tutor is just about to call your bluff. Save yourself from the hassle and embarrassment. Just prepare because then, no booming or thunderous voice is going to tell you that what you’ve prepared is not substantial. It may be insufficient but that’s where your tutors help you out. See? Tutors have hearts too, you know? In a more positive light, I have always regarded tutorials as a second chance to catch up on what I may have left out or failed to comprehend in lectures A lackadaisical attitude will take you no where and this I learnt the hard way when I failed a paper in my first year. Besides all that, I would regard my second year as highly entertaining. For instance, when all of us had to hone our skills at mooting. Lucky for me, the judges during my mooting session used a rather unconventional mode by putting us through a lengthy question-and-answer session to test us on what we REALLY knew of the case brought to them and that covered legal terminology, legal principles and so on. It didn’t seem like a mooting session at all. I admit that the audience were highly entertained during the circus act as the counsels action on both the appellant’s and the respondent’s side had to act as a team to provide satisfactory answers for the judges. That was when I learnt that not everything we learn is obtainable from textbooks and cases. As law students, we need to understand what we’ve read to apply our knowledge where necessary and that’s why even from the first year, our lecturers did not spoon feed us with everything there is we need to know about a subject as they feared that during the final examinations, the answers we would produce were just what we ‘vomit’ out. That wouldn’t serve the purpose of learning at all as we wouldn’t be able to remember much of what we’ve learnt in years to come.

After being a law student for almost three years now, I am pretty sure that each and every law student would have defined ‘law school’ in their own way and based on their experiences. Some have been active participants in students’ affairs but some have chosen to observe. Regardless where we stand, I’m sure that it has come across our minds whether enrolling into law school was a good idea. Whether I regret choosing this path, I’d say that I wouldn’t be trying so hard if I didn’t think that it would benefit me in the future. In this sense, we have to be long sighted and not expect everything to prosper the moment you achieve something. Life is, for a fact, a long distance run and not a sprint. I believe that if we pace ourselves right, we will be able to achieve what we dream of becoming, eventually. But before that happens, we’ve got to go through all those hard, stressful, tear jerking, mind blowing and nerve wrecking moments. I think of it as a long endurance test because inevitably, what doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger. And that…is what I, as an average law student, have to say about my journey in law school, so far.