What have you had to work hard for and eventually achieved?
One thing always comes to mind and that is the bar exams I took for my bar exams, gosh!, i remember the tension of even going to law school, all the stories were about how difficult it was going to be, more emphasis on the failures that happened than on the success stories, kept asking myself what if i failed, what was i going to do. The summarised study materials we had to go through alone was about 1000 pages minimum altogether of dense legal principles, and massive textbooks that seemed to grow heavier on our head with every principle or page you read.
My journey through law school and the Bar finals was a marathon run in total darkness. We began with just four weeks of physical classes before the COVID-19 pandemic slammed the doors shut, forcing us into a strange uncertainty about everything. What was supposed to be an intensive eight-month in person program transformed into eight months of isolation at home, we didnt even know if we were going to come back at or what was going to happen to our program. I didn't know when the world would reopen or when we would be asked to resume, but I knew that if I stopped, I would drown.
During that forced holiday, the stress became a constant companion. I read almost every single day for about the first 5 months straight, driven by the terrifying knowledge that the Bar exams consisted of five massive courses delivered back-to-back from Monday to Friday with no breaks. It was a format I had never faced before, and the sheer volume of information felt impossible to retain. I became a scientist of my own mind, experimenting with five different study methods, switching from one method of memorization to another. Every morning was a battle against the anxiety of not knowing if my efforts would even matter in a world that had seemingly come to a standstill.
Then after about 8months at home, we finally received the call to return, the pressure only intensified. We were told a day after our resumption date that we had just four weeks of revision before the exams would commence. In total, we spent only eight weeks in a physical classroom for a curriculum designed to span nearly a year. By any measure, we were dangerously underprepared, but those lonely months of disciplined reading at home became my saving grace. While the calendar for our set, felt like a setup for failure, my consistent pace during the lockdown gave me the edge I needed to survive the sudden sprint to the finish line. The exam week itself was a thin line between mental exhaustion and anxiety. Writing five high-stakes papers in five days was the ultimate test of everything I had sacrificed during those months of study. It was arguably the most challenging intellectual and emotional hurdle I have ever faced, but when the dust finally settled, I emerged victorious, i remember when the results were out, i checked it on my phone and my hands were shaking. lol!!. Good times!! and now im watching the catastrophe that is geo-politics and war in todays world.🤷