Before I stepped into the UP College of Law, I’ve had quite an adequate number of warnings and advices from friends, acquaintances and brods who were already in law school or were already lawyers. After a week into school, even though I had expected everything, I am still overwhelmed. I am confronted with a day’s worth of readings and cases more than I ever read in one semester. The readings list for just one subject suggests that I will have to read more than I ever read in my four years as an undergraduate in BA Film. Not that my undergraduate course was readings-intensive in the first place. Nevertheless, I feel like I’m going to have to study like I’ve never studied before. I have been warned well. What I’m getting myself into isn’t a joke.

I’ve been enjoying it so far. Funny, or perhaps I’m speaking too soon, all the initial readings actually caught my interest. The thought of having a professional grasp of this field excites me in how I can pursue, well, romanticized as it sounds, the pursuit of truth and justice in things I believe in. I can’t yet quite adequately answer the question as to why I’m doing this, but it may be borne out of a personal feeling of frustration at a legal system that is largely at the hands of those with the economic and political capital, to protect the status quo. Finally, I thought. I’m going to learn how to engage controllers in a level where I shall not be dismissed as a mere young idealist who know nothing about laws and whatnot.

Anyway, a few days ago, my sophomore block buddy, Kuya Luis, invited a blockmate and I at his boarding house to share some advices and tips and showed us all his books and his tons (literally) of readings. They were all so well organized. I felt so ‘inspired’ that the next day, I spent almost the entire day doing some spring cleaning in my room to make space for piles and piles of photocopied cases. Well, the sentimental person that I sometimes am, I spent a lot of time because I still had to go through papers and other personal effects individually before deciding to dispose of most of them forever. From high school essays and personal letters, to old copies of Hilites Magazine (high school publication where I spent four years as editor) and the Philippine Collegian. So amusing. I’ll talk about them in another blog entry. I even went out of the house and bought file cases.

So. Law school will take a lot of my time from now on. I’m still trying to adjust in a way that I am able to fulfill all my other extra-curricular and personal responsibilities. Nevertheless, I’m going to have to manage my time like I’ve never managed it before. I can’t believe I have to spend hours studying every night. Haha. Obviously, that wasn’t a habit I inculcated as film student.

Tags: blockmates, UP Law

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 2:52 pm and is filed under College . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.