Consummatum est. Or is it?
Thursday, April 19th, 2007It is done. I have for quite a while borne reservations about making it. Immediately after I laid the last test notebook on the proctor’s desk on September 24, 2006, I was actually relieved the month-long battle was finally over. Or so I thought. What I didn’t realize back then was that immediately after I laid that final test notebook on the proctor’s desk, a more cruicial period set in: It was six months of sheer agony.
I feared the catastrophe of having to re-endure reading legal literature month upon month, upon month, for it was too easy to get lost in the cacophony of legal doctrines and Latin maxims, and it was never remotely likely that the winds of suspicion may blow your sails towards a vexatious sea of uncertainty and doubt. After all, a person’s destiny is in grave danger when it is made contingent upon the upon the will and frailties of another.
And so I waited. And I waited with six thousand other warriors who took to the battle with me, and their friends, and their kins. And what pervaded amongst us are suspicion, fear, doubt. Even while a few exhibited vainglory, the specter of a near-miss still was an unwelcome apparition. It was too easy to submit to the phantoms of fate and prayers, and to kneel before effigies of hope and glory, which take the form of wooden, concrete or plaster human beings. But I desisted from that temptation, until the last day of waiting finally came in. Indeed, in those final hours, the temptation was too strong to resist, and I found myself submitting to fate, and prayers. I even allowed myself to suffer the humiliation of genuflecting in front of lifeless figures, and scrawling unremembered snippets on paper, and hoping against hope that it will be drawn in the lottery of Holy favors.
Yes, the Big Day came, and at or around 7 in the evening, the most awaited news sprawled on periodicals, first virtually then in reality, to the tune of a million ringtones and message alerts. My brother, Don, revealed the news to me way before the the others found their fate, and he said seemingly alien words like "attorney" and "lawyer" which needed a little patting from my friends Darry, Leo, Gen and Kikai before they finally sank in.
Thereafter, my mobile found itself flickering and shuddering from calls and sms-es of friends and kins who have gotten wind of the Good News. My mother, father, my sisters Din and Lyn, have all confirmed the news that will have found itself on the Supreme Court website fifteen minutes later. It is done. I muttered to myself, "It is Done."
Nay, I cannot be too prudish to claim that this Glory was of my doing alone. Having gone through that tumultuous period has inevitably planted in me the virtues of respect and humility, and of a recognition that something Divine does make its presence felt in the lives of men and women. And I cannot discount the fact that my friends and family completed the mixture that ultimately led to the glory in which I find myself in at this moment. To all of you, Mom, Dad, Don, Lyn, Din, Leo, Gen, Dar, Kai, Cez, and to those who may have slipped my unreliable memory, I am immensely grateful.
