Bar Exam Memoirs

Just recently, my nephew unintentionally broke my pink 14″ Hanabishi electric fan.  The fan is eight years old and has undergone three repairs to date.  And while people could convince me to discard it and get a new one, I just don’t have the heart.  Who would have thought that an ordinary electric fan has sentimental value.  But it does.  It was the electric fan I used to survive the heat, eight summers ago, while I was reviewing for the bar exams. That time in my life was momentous.  It was like all roads led to those fateful four Sundays in September 2000 and that pink electric fan kept me company through six months of rigorous and nerve-wrecking preparations.     So do forgive me if I can’t let go.  Not yet.

It’s every law graduate’s dream to pass the bar because honestly, your law degree is basically useless unless you become a lawyer.  Perhaps no one can really fully grasp the pain and difficulty of taking the bar exams except a fellow examinee.  To say it was difficult is actually an understatement.  You invest blood, sweat and tears with all the studying you have to do.  Include heavy doses of anxiety and all theother shit and you find yourself on the brink of a nervous breakdown.

The waiting will equally kill you especially in the weeks leading to the release of the results.  Good thing I was employed at that time, at least, I was able to immerse myself in work.   For my batch of bar examinees, the results came at the skirts of Edsa II.  I remember I was a wreck around March but by the end of April, I hardly cared what the results were.  All the waiting made me numb.   

The release of the results after Labor Day was expected but still felt like a surprise.  Weeks before, rumors were spreading of a 25% passing rate.  During my time 4,698 took the bar exams.   A 25% passing rate  would mean 1,174 would pass.  As a graduate of one of the top law schools, I did the math and concluded that I had a good chance of passing. 

May 2 came.  There I  was going about my business, working on a contract review, when a former classmate SMS-ed me.  I remember the message on my Nokia 5110 quite well:  SC en banc deliberations done.  20% passing rate (It turned out it was 20.84%).  Decoding started.  My hope dwindled a little but nevertheless there was a part of me that kept the faith.  I still felt I belonged to those 900 or so successful examinees. 

I remember clocking out around 7:00 pm and walking from my office to my friend Marivic’s office at Robinson’s Corporate Tower where she was working overtime, hoping to access the results from the SC Website on her computer.  I did not have the guts to go to the Supreme Court and hustle my way through a crowd of examinees.  I tried to convince myself that with the Internet who needs to go to Padre Faura? But who was I kidding?  I was simply too scared to let my classmates see me in case I failed.

It was already past 8 pm and still no results were posted on the website.  I was a nervous wreck, not to mention so hungry since I haven’t eaten anything since I forcefully fed myself during lunch.  Marivic convinced me to have dinner at Jollibee,Galleria.  I remember ordering Chickenjoy and tried to eat but the food tasted like paper in my mouth even if in reality Chickenjoy is supposed to taste like heaven.  In the midst of trying to finish the meal, my trusty Nokia 5110 beeped. It was an SMS from my friend and schoolmate, who was a batch below me.  Since he was not classmate, I was oblivious of what his message would be.  Without warning, I pressed the button to reveal the mesage.  The message had three words.  Three words that changed my life forever.

Pumasa ka, congrats.  

I let out a shriek and showed the text to Marivic.  She screamed as well and we hug one another as we both jumped up and down.  The people at Jollibee were looking at us curiously but I didn’t care. I just passed the bar exams.  

I called up the bearer of good news.  It turned out he was at the Supreme Court and he had a copy of the list in his freakin’ hand.  I asked him to repeat my name over and over again. It sounded like sheer poetry.

Miraculously, the Chickenjoy never tasted so good.  After the meal, Marivic and I went to her office so I could call my family.  It was my dad who answered the phone. He was so relaxed in hearing the good news.  My mom, on the other hand, was so emotional, I could hear her crying.

Although I knew I already passed, I just had to see my name for myself.  I took a cab ride to the Supreme Court.  It was already pass 9 pm but still a lot of people were still there. I saw a lot of my classmates who also passed and we hugged and cried in that magical moment of triumph.   That was indeed one of the happiest moments of my life.  

I remember seeing a classmate who landed on the top ten.  We hugged one another in joy after which we joined three other classmates and chatted away.  A photographer then approached us and asked if my classmate was one of the bar topnnotchers.  My classmate nodded in reply.  The photographer then asked if he could take our picture and like excited ninnies, we gamely posed.  He asked us to make the number one sign with our fingers and he took the snapshot with his trusted Canon camera.  I remember looking at the man’s ID and saw the words “Western Police Dsitrict”, indicating that the man had a police beat.  I even kidded him if our picture would appear on those “WANTED” posters.   

Our picture ended up on the backcover of an afternoon tabloid.  One of my classmates, who appeared in the photo with me (there were five of us in all), SMS-ed me: Yung mga mukha natin nasa People’s Tonight.  I immediately went outside my office,  walked to a nearby corner and bought a copy from a sidewalk vendor.  I glanced at the back story and saw our picture gracing the page.  How’s that for posterity?  I even called up another classmate who was in the photo too but talked to the maid.  As my classmate was asleep, I just left a message for him to buy the newspaper.  The maid informed me that her Kuya already bought twenty copies of it.  Lol.

Those were indeed happy memories. Seven years have passed and I still remember those moments quite well. 

I just read in the Supreme Court website that the results of the 2007 Bar Exams is slated to be released tomorrow, March 28, 2008 or on Saturday, March 29.  I have an inkling that it will be tomorrow.  Call it women’s intuition.  I am hoping that a close friend of mine will pass.  Oh please God.  He really derserves it.  He’s a good man, Lord.  I’m also rooting for a fellow officemate.   I hope they would get to experience the joy of passing.  The joy in being the person of the moment.  The poignant emotion of being truly blessed.

Passing the bar is not just the culmination of the journey of becoming a lawyer. It’s more than that.  It’s the triumph of those who dreamed, believed in that dream, and who worked hard to reach it.  It’s a testimony of diligence and faith.

It’s actually, A TRIUMPH OF THE SPIRIT.