Someday
you will meet a man who cares nothing for Fame, Comfort, Wealth, and Glory and
that day you will realize how poor you are – Rudyard Kipling
It was my first day in college.
I entered the classroom. In front of me were 200 unknown faces. I was startled.
With my head down, I walked up straight to the back of the class, as fast as I
could, and occupied a place. Alone. I could hear people chatter. Introducing
themselves. And suddenly everyone stood up. A Professor, a lady in her 40s, with
a subtle smile on her face, entered the class. Along her was a nerdy looking
guy, a final-year student, dressed formally in a white shirt and black trouser.
That was the beginning of our first lecture in law school. A blue print of what
the next five years would be like. Advices regarding Examinations, Moot Courts,
MUNs, and Debates etc. were given. Little did we know then, that the year was
going to be full of these. No, not the activities. But advices.
Life in the first year was a
Party. The minimum required attendance was 40%. Classes were held only for 2
hours. The rest of the day was spent either in the canteen or with the seniors.
And there, we would hear stories. Stories of failures and hardships. Stories of
fame and glory. The problem with studying in a college, with a batch strength
of around 300 students, is that that you hear tons of those, which let you
decide the path that you are going to take in the future. However, by the end
of the year you are so blinded by these things that you forget the aim with
which you came to Law School.
Confused. You start shaping up
your career in a haphazard manner, like an Artist who doesn’t know what he is
painting and is content with whatever emerges. If you are fortunate, it might
turn out good. Things become easier for those who did not have a particular aim
when they joined Law School.
In these five years, to make
things worse, competition takes over. You get jealous of your friend who just
won a debate. You start slogging it out, pull all-nighters before an exam,
write research papers, and do internships. You go through all these troubles to
bag that heavily paid job at a top tier law firm. However, getting that job is
not the end all be all. The sooner you realize this, the better.
Law School is much more than
Moot Courts and Good Grades, than Internships and Diplomas. There will come
moments that will define who you are and what you love. Moments that will make
you realize the importance of going out in the woods and experiencing different
things, that life is precious, anything can happen, and things don’t actually turn
out the way they are planned, that outside college there is a different world
altogether. Of a young jaded corporate lawyer who killed himself, I was told
that he had lost his identity in his cubicle, that he had changed greatly since,
and that that experience had greatly undermined him.
So whether you did well in your
Law School becomes utterly insignificant in front of this colossal realization.
And if you are still looking for answers in life, look within. And ‘don’t you worry,
don’t you worry child’, you will go places.
