The One It is ironic to try to find an inspiration from law professors who, most of the time, are often

regarded as ruthless, merciless classroom predator - waiting in the shadows for the unprepared, unassuming and careless law student. Imagine a zebra trying to find inspiration from the pursuing mighty lion on the African wilderness. After the dusts settle, the uneventful is clear. Life in law school is a no-mans-land. It is practically a war zone and every night, casualties fall and victors rise. The more popular law of science, that is for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction does not simply apply. It is, in reality for every action there is a colossal reaction that is ego-crunching and gut-wrenching from the master of the evening class the one everybody calls the law professor. We were four rows deep, bigheaded, noisy, and arrogant bunch when we started the journey in law school. But several semesters hence, there hardly is a broad shoulder or a silky hair to hide from the piercing eyes of the master. We were reduced to a heap old, scarred, shocked and murmuring students like zombies in the night. The night classes become creepier as the old shadows disappear, recycled into the normal society outside the four corners of the class, courtesy of the one everybody calls the law professor. His mere presence in class is enough to send blood pressures plummeting beyond normal. Regardless of age, gender, religion, and levels of intelligence, the master can bring everyone to his knees in an instant. Having read the lesson may not be an assurance in class after all for in addition, one needs to be deceptive, to appear calm-faced, with controlled-breathing, and to be able to project an aura of being prepared. Otherwise, anyone caught wandering in the quagmire of ignorance is left to be devoured alive for dinner by the one everybody called the law professor. You forget your birthday, your anniversary, your password in your email but you never forget the cases and articles assigned. Everyone thinks you must be doing something illicit to arrive very late at night on a daily basis. You intentionally carry books others thought were telephone directories in red, blue, or green hard covers. You become a willing victim of humiliation in class and you forget about who you once was - an accountant, an engineer, a political scientist, a professional student, courtesy of the one everybody calls the law professor. Can anyone then draw inspiration from the one most law students consider the merciless predator? Can a zebra find inspiration from the mighty lion? Amusing indeed but I believe Yes is the only answer. Absurd as it may sound, it is meant to be. It is drawing strength from the enemy. For how can one win a war without fighting a battle? How can one taste the glory of winning when he has not once been defeated. How then can a law student hone his talents, skills, and tools without a ruthless, intimidating, and merciless enemy? Accomplishment in law school may be measured not in the number of correct answers and examinations passed but rather on the number of steps taken after a fall - persistence may win the battle and ultimately the war.

This is inspiration of the highest degree. When you are nudged or most often forced to be in a level nearing breakdown, is that not a source of strength that somebody believes in your abilities to be capable of excellence? When you are humbled and most of the time shown the exit door, is that not a source of enlightenment to try harder? If it is not inspiration, I would not have given a closer look and turned the pages like a minced meat the 1987 Constitution, the Revised Penal Code, the New Civil Code, the equally intimidating Articles and Sections of certain Acts, Commonwealth Acts, Presidential Decrees, Republic Acts, and everything a normal individual just consider a waste of time reading, much more understanding. If that is not inspiration, I do not know what it is. Law school is not for the weak of heart but for the strong of souls. In class, everyone is mentally stripped to the bare until what is left is a humble heart, and an open but a potent mind. Those who are square-pegs-in-a-round-hole are recycled to the normal society. Those who persevere and survive are clothed with the wisdom of the law and the practice of the just, ready for that great challenge, the great equalizer the bar examinations. Dreams do necessarily come true or die in law school. Those who want to live their dream of becoming a lawyer must accomplish the seemingly impossible task of doing things right the first time. Excellence must be in every breath that we make. Half-done is never done. As a famous author once said, there are three kinds of persons in the world: those who make things happen; those who wait for things to happen; and, those who asks the question what happened? What you think, you become. There can be no one law professor we can truly draw inspiration from for each and every one of them is a filament of light, all of them forming an aurora of light in guiding students, albeit harshly at times, to their ultimate goal. They are all a pillar of excellence. They are all a collection of struggles and successes. But most of all, they are all noble teachers. In class, they build a temple; they select the best stones, shape them to their right dimensions, and lay each stone with prayer hoping to produce a better lawyer of tomorrow. A builders temple, on the one hand, will not last for it will later on crumble to the dust. But the temple the teacher built in class, shall forever last for it is the law students immortal soul. Michaelangelo once wrote: The greatest danger is not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark. I could no longer keep tab of the times when everything seems to be falling apart in law school. But I have come to terms with reality that everybody is vulnerable. Even the greatest of minds have once fallen. Without a doubt, the level of awareness and knowledge each and every survivor of a law class is because of the one everybody calls the law professor. In todays circuitous society when the good and the bad are pitted against each other and persuasiveness of reason seems to hang in the balance, there can be no more fitting to consider the most influential than the one everybody calls the law professor. It humbles the soul to hear from some of the figures in the infamous impeachment trial utter the words: my former professor in law, obviously acknowledging the immeasurable influence to the life and mind of the former law student. As in other professions, we have our law professors of all sorts and sizes, styles and predicaments. They have their blunders and all of the time they have their way in class. We are

forced to laugh at their jokes and unintentionally shy away from eye-to-eye contact to minimize the unnecessary accumulation of incorrect answers. There is something about them that keeps us going no matter what. Is this a new emotional response to a stimulus yet to be discovered? Or that we just love to be debased to be able to experience a failure for the better feeling of satisfaction when we spring back. Indeed, who is not happy when one gets the nod of the master? Who is not pleased when the master concurred with your legal opinion? It is addicting. The night classes, the flickering fluorescent bulb, the thundering voice amidst the silence of the room, the sound of pages being turned to read in advance while a classmate is being mentally dismembered, the excitement to be the best, the struggle to be at peace after a war. That is what keeps us going, that is what is inspiring. The zebra can be inspired by the lion courtesy of the one everybody calls the law professor. We will soon be out of law school. In due time, we might be in the same universe as our law professor. We will soon be engaging them in court battles and perhaps even defeating them in some legal skirmishes. But one thing remains forever etched in immortality, that the old man was the one, the one who equipped the student with the tools to one day carry on the battle to ensure that the ends of justice is achieved, fairness is observed, and honesty and good faith prevail among men. To be an instrument to carve a character so genuine out of the bare mind and soul of a law student is a virtue worthy of emulation. Would I become a law professor myself? To say no would be to betray the master, to say maybe would be a nugatory. I would like to be a lion, a mighty instrument of change. The lion indeed can inspire a zebra courtesy of the one everybody calls the law professor. For as long as we live in a society where justice and fair play is supreme, there will be law professors. For as long as reason lives in every human mind, law students will beat the odds. For there can be no powerful than a man educated with the right minds and tools of a law professor and whose time has finally come. Our time to shine as law students will be just as limited as the pages of a book, but our time to change the world we live in, to be an instrument of excellence is as unlimited as the resources of the ocean. Thanks to the old man and woman of the night, the patient man and woman in robes and the unsung heroes that keep the law school a well-oiled machine of brilliance and distinction. Without them, there can be no legal luminaries. Without them, we cannot truly call ourselves, law students. To them we owe our future. To them we owe our newfound life. To them we say thanks. We will not all be staying long unto this world. What we have learned from the one everybody calls the law professor or shared with our future zebras will be marked invisibly on our tombstones. What greater satisfaction is there than to have influenced somebody who will soon influence others. The spirit and the fire of perseverance of the masters of the night classes will forever live. To them, the spirit of the law shall likewise forever be instilled in the minds of the selected few, the survivors, the battle-scarred, the righteous and the humbled law students. Is there life after law school? Is lawyering a life? Will there be another life as challenging as law school? That, my friends is yet to be known. Some would be contented with the life of a law student. Others would consider it only the appetizer for an even more challenging arena of life, the legal profession. Be that as it may, the reality is that not all will be lawyers, but I would still be contented due to the fact that a great number of them, those survivors are roaming the

streets, occupying positions, raising families, or just enjoying life, were once law students. They have been touched and in them the spirit of the one everybody calls the law professor. We say to the old man once more, thanks. That excellence in what they do is an understatement, it is life itself. It is the spirit that gives us the drive to become more than we thought we can achieve. Who is the one? Him who is the master of the night classes, the mighty lion of the African wilderness, the ruthless and merciless predator, mighty and able opponent of the law student. To him we bow with humility. Long live the one everybody calls the law professor!

JULIUS CAESAR G. DOMINGO SAINT MARYS UNIVERSITY College of Law (Bayombong, NV) LLB 2