When I finished high school, I never imagined myself becoming a lawyer.

I came from a
simple family. My father was a taxi driver and my mother was a waitress. There were no
lawyers in our family and we have no lawyer relatives at all.
I still remember when we were asked to write down our dream jobs for our high school
yearbook. While most of my classmates placed To be an engineer, To be a doctor, To
be a teacher, I simply wrote down To be a contented man. I wrote that down because I
wasnt really dreaming big. But that was not a sign of uncertainty on my part nor a lack of
direction. It was merely me being simple.
After high school graduation, the prospect of going to college was a bit bleak. My parents
income was not sufficient to finance my college education. Fortunately, I was able to secure
a scholarship which will pay part of my tuition expenses. At first, I was thinking of enrolling in
engineering but then I realized, since my sister, herself a scholar, was already taking up
architecture, maybe I should choose a different course to have some diversity. So I
decided to enroll in a different course. Nursing was one of the boom courses at that time.
My sister accompanied me to the queue for the College of Nursing applicants. But while at
the very long queue, I changed my mind, again. Patiently, my sister helped me browse
through different course offerings until I came across Political Science. Honestly, Ive never
heard of that course when I was in high school but the subjects offered in Political Science
intrigued me. And as fate would have it, I finished Political Science and that paved way to
me taking up law.
After earning my degree in Political Science, I immediately quit my job at a fastfood chain
(as I also worked part time because my scholarship did not cover non-tuition expenses). I
was thinking, I am now a degree holder and I should have no trouble looking for a higher
paying job. I was actually aiming to land a teaching job at the same university where I
graduated. While applying for a college instructor position, I enrolled in one of the local law
schools. Come day one of law school and I still did not land that teaching job. I tried other
schools but none would accept me despite my decent GWA. Apparently, universities prefer
applicants with masters or doctorate degrees. There was a bit of a panic at that time already
but midway through my first semester in law school, I was able to get a job, not as a college
instructor, but as an English tutor to South Koreans.
My salary as a tutor was barely enough to cover my tuition, law books, and all other
expenses needed to finance my legal studies. In fact, in order for me to take my final
exams, I have to borrow money from my girlfriend (now my wife). I was a bit ashamed of

myself at that time. I felt inadequate. After that semester, I decided to quit law school, which
I did.
After quitting, I decided to be a call center agent. I was happy at first because I was earning
a decent salary. But then, after two years of taking calls, I decided that was not how I want
to spend the rest of my life.
I decided to go back to law school.
I decided to have a fresh start considering that I only finished one semester, which wasnt
much at all.
During the first two years of my return, I was able to balance my call center work and law
school quite fine. But just like everything in life, law school will not be complete without a
daunting challenge.
On the day of my final exam in Civil Procedure, I had to attend to my dying father. I still
decided to go to school and took the exam, perhaps to divert my attention to something
else. My dad died while I was taking the exam. After mourning my fathers death, I received
news that I failed my Civ Pro exam. I kinda expected that. Now I am faced with the fact that
I have to be delayed in law school since I cannot take up 3rd year classes without re-taking
and passing Civ Pro which was only seasonally offered. To reduce the delay, I decided to
switch to another law school. I did not have much choice but to go to a lesser regarded law
school but hey, I believe in me more than I believe in any of these law schools. Interestingly
though, and unfortunately, when I transferred, I was forced to retake law subjects I already
passed this was apparently due to the fact that the law curriculum between these law
schools were different something which was not mentioned to me before I processed my
transfer credentials. But oh well, what was done was done.
So my law school life continued. Meanwhile, the account I was servicing for at the BPO
where I was working at got dissolved. I was transferred to a financial account where we
handled loan concerns. That account was a very stressful account because, unlike in the
sales account where I came from, virtually all our callers in this financial account were irate.
The stress I was taking at work was beginning to take a toll on my legal studies. Suddenly,
the work-school balance I had was fading. Now I am faced with the same dilemma of
choosing between work and law school.
Fortunately though, a former schoolmate of mine offered an alternative job. This was my
introduction to online jobs. My schoolmate introduced me to my first client and when I was
certain that I can earn money from this new racket, I quit the call center job I had.

My first online job involved article writing and trafficking term papers abroad. I basically
wrote term papers for U.S. students and also blog articles for various online
niches. Eventually, I became a virtual assistant. As a virtual assistant, I learned to build and
manage websites. I was lucky to have a client who allowed me to work on a flexible
schedule to accommodate my law studies. This was the set up until I finished law school.
I was not able to attend our graduation day as I promised my boss I will make up for the
absences I incurred when I was taking my final exams. I also did not throw any graduation
party. To my mind, the battle is not yet over.
First thing I did once law school was over was to assess myself whether or not I am truly
prepared to take the 2014 bar. Honestly, it did feel like a shot in the dark. At that time, I
resolved that I shall file my petition to take the bar but if come bar month and I am not yet
ready, I will definitely back out. No sense taking such a gamble anyway.
In my assessment, the subjects I am least prepared to take were Taxation, Civil Law, and
Mercantile Law. So these subjects were what I intended to focus on during my review.
Next thing I did was to ask my boss how much leave time I can get. This was the tricky part
because as per our initial agreement, I am entitled to 10 leave credits a year only and I
already used some of that during my final exams. It was difficult for both of us because first,
I cant afford to go on leave for a long time because then I will not have any money to
support my review. Second, my boss cant afford to have me go on leave for long because
really, I have no substitute at work. We cant simply get a temp and then entrust him or her
access to all the websites I manage. At the end, we agreed I can have a one month leave
which was the bar month itself.
For my review, I enrolled in two bar review programs, the other being an online review
program, but only attended subjects where I need to build up on (the three subjects I
mentioned earlier). I self-reviewed in the other bar subjects. I focused on the contents of the
syllabus provided by the Supreme Court website. I gathered as many tips as possible. I was
fortunate to have friends who have passed the bar and they gave me advice and
assistance.
Come bar month, I went down to Manila and searched for a place to stay for the month. I
am not used to the lowland weather but I was thinking, I am sure it will be hotter in the exam
room considering how tough the exams will be.

The first and second Sunday of exams went really well for me. Personally, I was thinking the
second Sunday will be toughest but luckily, I was able to answer all the questions in both
subjects. At that point, I thought the worst was over.
But inexplicably, on the night before the 3rd Sunday of exams, I found myself having trouble
sleeping. I was only able to sleep for thirty minutes at 4 am. And when I opened the
questionnaire for Mercantile Law, I cannot believe that my mind went blank. It also did not
help that the start of our exam was delayed due to questions regarding the bar codes given
us. Some of my roommates were doubting the correctness of the bar codes being placed on
the notebooks being issued to us at that time.
In total, I recall that there were six questions in Mercantile Law that I was not able to answer
logically. Sure, I answered all the questions but I felt like the examiner will give me a zero
rating in those six questions and theres no guarantee that the examiner will give me good
ratings for each of the remaining questions. I can admit I was not able to present persuasive
arguments in those six questions. That trend continued until the afternoon exams in
Criminal Law where, again, I was not able to present logical answers in at least three
questions. I went home feeling down but I really have no choice but to prepare for the final
Sunday and get over with that bad performance.
On the evening before the 4th Sunday of exams, I again found myself sleepless. But unlike
what happened the week before, I did not lie restlessly on my bed. Instead, I sat down and
read my reviewers on Remedial Law and Legal Ethics. Fortunately, my mind did not go
blank in either subject when exam time came.
After the last exams, I was too exhausted. I was neither happy nor relieved nor sad. I just
want to go home. So I went home and slept in perhaps the longest sleep Ive had in years.
The next day, I still cannot believe that the bar exams was over. I did not want to read any of
the bar exam questionnaires which we took home. But in my assessment, the nine
questions I messed up with will not lead to my flunking the bar and I psyched myself up
with that belief. I refused to go over those questions. In my mind, I passed the bar.
For the next months until the results were released, I avoided thoughts about the bar. I
immediately went back to work. All those months, I did not revisit the questionnaires. I just
dont want to speculate. I dont want to know if there were other questions I unwittingly and
unconsciously messed up which were not apparent to me during the exams. Conversely, I
did not get complacent. I know that sometimes, and this happened a lot in law school, even
though you were so confident in your answers to a point where you expect high ratings, you
still end up receiving low grades.

But as the month of March 2015 approaches, I cannot help but be anxious. Every lawyer
who said that the waiting part is the hardest part is correct. There was a point where you
just wanted to have the results regardless if you fail or not just to kill the anxiety. There are
also times where you wish you could stop time so that no one will ever know the results.
That way you dont have to experience defeat in case you failed. You see, its a lot of mixed
emotions.
Then March 2015 came, at this point, I begin to manage my expectations. Some friends
would bluntly ask me how I feel about my performance and I always say, I am confident in
my answers but one can never really know. Ive had several friends, and I know of several
individuals, who took the bar ahead of me who were smart people but surprisingly failed. I
also know of certain stories about bar bets who flunked the bar so certainly, one can
never be so sure. That being, I began to revisit my notes. I found myself reading cases
again. I began looking for updates in jurisprudence. I was reviewing.
In the few days before the results were released, a lot of rumors were swirling around
various online forum. One particular rumor from an alleged insider gave news that the
passing rate was going to be 27%, which was encouraging considering that the previous
bars passing rates were really low. Others were already telling from which schools the
topnotchers will come. On the night before March 26, I decided not to work on any of my
pending projects. However, I cannot sleep as the suspense kept me up. I was only able to
sleep at 4.a.m. I woke up at 10:30 a.m. an hour before the announced time of release. I
did not eat breakfast. Instead, I opened a computer game and played for about 30 minutes.
After that, I opened a browser and read a tweet from a news channel reporting that the
passing rate was only 18.82% second lowest since the year 2000. This surely gave me
more reasons to be nervous. My hands were numb as I patiently wait for the Supreme Court
web page to load.
11:30 a.m. came and my computer screen still showed a blank Supreme Court page. I just
sat there waiting. Later, I heard my wife screaming as she saw my name in the list of
passers. She beat me to it! I wanted to cry but for some reason, my eyes did not well up.
We just hugged each other and a few minutes later, congratulatory messages flooded my
phone inbox as well as my social media inboxes. Surely, it was one of the happiest
moments of my life.
A few hours passed and I found myself reflecting on all the ups and downs of law school. It
was definitely a challenging part of my life. In total, I spent five and a half years in law
school, worked three different jobs, and enrolled in three different law schools. I could have
stopped and focused on a career. I could have stopped when I failed. But I didnt. I was not

contented but it wasnt because I was greedy nor it was because I was ambitious. Its simply
because I have a dream which I wanted to fulfill. Surely, the adversities I faced werent as
daunting as those faced by others but the lesson is the same, if you have a dream, you
have to work for it. Because the reality is, success is not achieved simply by asking for it. I
was just an average law student. But I always made sure I put up above-average effort.
That, to me, was the key to surviving law school and the bar.