Round 1

My first Sunday was a very spiritual event. It all started 7 years ago. I decided I would be a lawyer. Something happened that made me want to be one so I took the steps and am now almost there. The biggest hurdle is coming up.

    Funny back then I started playing basketball again for UP dorms and teams. I chose the #77 for my jersey. 7 was my favorite number. Always has been.  Funny that it would take 7 years for me to finish law school. Take the bar in the year 2007. But hey, I think it’s a good sign. So last April I enrolled in the bar review class. Had to sign up on a notebook thing. Funny when it was my turn to sign, the slot on the notebook was #77.  And so my law center review ID bears that number. Looks like I’ve been branded.So I found it also funny that in Manila Bulletin when the list of bar examinees came out I’m conveniently #763. In numerology one adds those numbers together until you get a single digit. 7+6+3=16, then 1+6=7.  7 again.  Funny.

    Then come saturday check-in time I am handed my hotel key. It was near the elevator so I knew it would be disturbing to have that bell going off once in a while when the elevator reached my floor and barristers would be chatting all the way to their rooms. I didn’t mind though. I was absorbed. I didn’t forget to hear mass. I felt the need to. It would be the only saving grace, having not finished 1st reading for labor. So I prayed. Then on my way up I struggled with the keycard and as I stood there outside my door I stopped and stared at my room number. #502.  5+2= 7. I calmed down and took it as a sign God will be with me during my first Sunday. And I should trust and believe.

    So I crammed my usual way. My bestfriends arrived and I had the best resources for asking explanations for difficult concepts like party-list computation and illegal recruitment and injunctions. By this time, the text messages were pouring in… well wishers and prayers. I’m really lucky to have a good support system. (Multiply friends included of course) Thank you so much everyone, you guys gave me strength when I was about to break down again at the hotel and at mass. Hehehe yes jam, umiyak ata ako sa mass. Anyway I didn’t sleep. I crammed and I crammed, all those advice about what to do the night before I didn’t follow. I crammed, I didn’t sleep, I ate A LOT. I lit a candle in my room and would stare at it when I couldn’t absorb information and would just pray.

     By 3 am I couldn’t take anymore so I just listened to praise songs on my ipod while going through the codal. (did I forget to mention the song at mass was one that had been playing in my head the day before and almost everytime I think of the bar)    Had a shower and went down to the LSG and PY saw me and shoved the tips right at me. "Read that" she says. And so I crammed some more. On the elevator, while eating breakfast, on the bus, in the queue on the way inside La Salle. I was so nervous. I think my heart was as loud as the gong drums that was playing in the background. I forgot which school. Then I went inside my building St. La Salle and had to look for the list of rooms and which one I had to be in. So here comes another list. I searched for my name.  There it was. #124.  1+2+4 = 7. I’m not kidding. You can check.

    So I crammed some more in the classroom, at lunch, by the stairwell, in the bathroom. And for me I think it was all these factors that made me survive my first day. God, my family, my friends. It’s humbling to be at an emotional point when you know you can’t do anything anymore. It’s miraculous to find someone else pick you up and carry you to the next post like a pass the message thing or those concert style passed around to the next person high up in the air to get to the stage. Anyhow as for the exams I didn’t really think about it after, whether my answers were right or wrong. But I’m so thankful my mind wasn’t blank at all. It would be safe to say I wouldn’t be disqualified on the very first Sunday. That at least I can now fight and cram just a bit earlier for the next Sunday.

Stats:
(for poli I read bernas a month ago and half of nachura and stopped studying. labor I didnt start at all till just last Tuesday and took Wednesday off to sleep after breaking down, then crammed again the next day, Friday I went to Quiapo church and the chapel in recoletos. Then went home to cram all the way to bar day. A total of 5 days for my 1st reading mind you)

time finished
poli: 10:53 am
labor: 4pm
hours spent awake: 40 (from Saturday 4am-Sunday 9pm)

Maybe next entry I’ll talk about the number 9 the number of completion. That’s the other number that keeps popping up in my life.