Silent Hill 2 OST - Theme of Laura

Bar Exams 2016

Yesterday was the first Sunday of the 2016 bar exams. As you probably know, the bar exam is a grind-fest that takes place over four Sundays in that fetid buffalo anus of a city called Manila. Law graduates and assorted loonies will take their shot (again for some) to hopefully become the newest shiny cogs in the obsolete rusty machine that is the Philippine justice system.

I had my chance and I blew it; not even going to make excuses. The worst part about flunking the bar is having to live with that fact. It's a curse.

There's something you have to understand about the bar. When you're in Law school, it's hyped up beyond belief. You get four years of non-stop hype over what is essentially a government administered board exam. Of course, it's silly at first but then they start talking about it almost breathless terms as if it were a life or death situation and then you begin to buy into it. Next thing you know, the bar consumes every bit of your life. It's in your thoughts and under your skin.

If you pass, then that's another story. If you flunk then you're stuck. It's a curse. "Oh, what did they ask this year?" "Are you taking it this year?" "Oh, he's not taking it this year?" Stuck. It's an anchor frustrating the sailboat of your life. The lucky ones move on and make lives for themselves; start a family maybe. For unlucky ones, it'll define them. Stuck. Stuck by the wayside endlessly running into familiar faces, asking with feigned interest if you took it again, if you plan to take it again, who else took it, who passed, who will take again, on and on forever until you finally pass it or die, whichever mercy comes first.

The lucky ones who pass will go on with their careers. The unlucky ones become Law professors; unable to truly escape the bar exams even as they overcame it. Law schools are judged by how many passers they produce. To be fair, many law teachers are great people but it eventually becomes a rat-race. The bar exam truly consumes everything. It is the end all be all of legal education. Law school will teach you everything you need to pass the bar. Everything else, you'll have to learn on your own.

Sour grapes? Probably. I decided not to take this year because frankly, it's exhausting. Imagine learning something, spending the fourth year relearning it, then another year reviewing what you relearned, then reviewing it months prior to the exam, then reviewing your review of your reviews the week before the big days. People act surprised when I tell them that I'm not interested in retaking the test at the moment. Nothing is more irritating to me than people acting as if it were so easy to drop half a year of your life to review then flying to that rat nest Manila to stay there for a month to take an exam over four Sundays.

See? I'm writing about the damned thing after a month of pretty much nothing. It can't be helped. People bring it up. It's in the papers. It's in your memories. I just want to go about my life pretending that I'm over it in peace!

Why doesn't China just invade already?

Christopher Tin - Sogno di Volare