So the holidays have rolled in and the vicissitudes of law school life take a backseat… As I metamorphosize into a couch potato, I stopped and wondered about the magnitude of the reality that a tremendous part of the year has gone by yet again; we are 26 days away from 2014, and about 40 days away from the next sem (oops, sorry for the reminder). I began to realize how much time has mercilessly flown by…
1 year ago… while the rest of the year 1s struggled with the non-existence of Mr. Reasonable Man, a handful of us sat in the mud-puddle of our stupidity wondering why “Anor” and “Ors” were getting sued repeatedly in lawsuits all over the world. Interestingly enough, the only dudes far foolisher than these recalcitrant defendants were a bunch of ridiculously naive Singapore law students squirming about in the feeble existence of their sheer oblivion. Not to mention, the twin Wagon Mound cases apparently arose from the same appeal (did you know?) – same case name with different numbers, must have been a tough one to crack there.
1 year ago… school was out, and the running joke was, “ain’t no party like a Gunapathy” (which I must apologetically admit now, was made at the horrible expense of the parties involved in the tragedy). The excruciation of a virgin law semester seemed legitimate enough convince each of us that a wrecking-ball-party – any party for that matter – would be justified given the multiple life points and mana we sacrificed for a good 4 months.
As a year one, you’d probably hustle for your wonderland of fun before 6 weeks disappear magically and you climb the bell-curve shaped hill up the Botanic Gardens yet again. As a year 2 sitting in the bliss of my second December-holidays, strangely enough, I asked myself, “what do these law kids do during the hols man?” Coming out of back-to-back mugging sessions, maybe you feel like this:
Okay but what I’m really sure people are truly doing is:
1. Recovery
Many have said that this cute lil’ guy here resembles our dear Professor Wee Meng Seng (who I must say, is quite a fantastic man and top lad of a prof!) but the gif really only shows what’s truly going on in some of our lives as the post-exam trauma sets in. 19 days to Christmas Eve: when the monstrosity of a text message beeps at 7-ish to welcome you to the real world (maybe even condescendingly too, as John Mayer sang). I can’t help anyone out with this one, if you seriously need a friend or someone to talk to, you can mail or text me perhaps? Brace yourself!
2. Internships
You saw this coming too: your face when the 7am alarm beckons you to the tranquil train ride into the beautiful life of suits and ties in the CBD. I mean, just check out this convo between two law students:
3. Shows
This is definitely true; some of my friends are sleeping much less than during the exam season. My advice: less telly should be good, work off those exam cals and fats!
4. Training for Zoukout
Must be hard work..
5. Mugging
Please wipe that look of astonishment off your face right now and get your act together, because as you read this Justified post, someone else is getting ahead of you in your Sem 2 readings for Criminal Law, Public Law or Family Law. I’m just messing around, but if you really are studying something, somewhere out there…. WHY NEVER JIO?
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At the end of the day, please have a blessed and restful December holidays… Take time off for a walk (or run), put your phone away, walk your sorely neglected pet (if it’s still alive!), play your dusty PlayStation3 (Batman: Arkham Origins’ apparently quite dope) , buy a Nintendo 3DS and play Pokemon like 2 of my mates did (Mark Yeo & Viktor Leong Wai Krum from Year 2 if you need to trade or something), go for a short trip with your folks, spend some time hanging with folks who need help at legal clinics, read a real non-textbook book, waste your money watching the poor movies out there… Just don’t end up setting out to do all these and sloth around all day:
Or, simply spend some time thinking about why you’re doing all these, all over & over (v Bonvest Holdings) again.
“You are off the treadmill here,” he said. “Take advantage of this opportunity to stretch yourself. You don’t have to get a notch ahead of anyone else.” Students should love and take care of one another, he continued, and allow that sense of caring to become a habit. Excellence was a necessary part of becoming a good lawyer, but without humanity and decency, skill in the law was worthless – not merely wrong, but dangerous. (Anarchy and Elegance, Chris Goodrich)
Thanks for reading Justified throughout 2013, we hope we’ve made your school life slightly better! Keep the banter coming on Overheard but be polite and loving! God bless and have a great December!
Life has just begun!
