I'm the kind of person who starts a series and has the unfortunate need to have to finish them. Though that didn't happen to a few series such as "Fallen" because it literally sucks. I read fiction to escape reality. 

You can read ew.com's summary/ review here.
This is digital spy's. 
If you have read the book, just skip the articles above and everything I write and watch the trailer below. 

Anyways, the all souls trilogy is good. This is a simple summary, really. You should see how thick the book is. The trailer is meh in my opinion. The book is much better. 

Book 1: A Discovery of Witches
Set in the present, Matthew Clairmont (1500 years old vampire) meets Diana Bishop (Bridget Bishop's descendant, basically who will become the most powerful witch because the goddess is like her fairy godmother), a witch that doesn't use her magic. Matthew sought out Diana because she found the missing book of life. But they fall in love, and they break the covenant where creatures (vampires, witches, demons) don't mix. <Cues lots of drama and conflict which everyone can identify with when you want to be with someone who doesn't seem to fit you>. Diana gets tortured by a Finnish witch Satu Jarvinen who is a member of the Congregation (like creature government). Matthew helps her get in touch with her magic. They decide to time walk into the past at the end of the first book to seek out the mystery of the book of life and find powerful witches in the past to help Diana with her magic (Diana can time walk, told you, she can do every witchy thing, and creatures are "dying out" and becoming lousier because of the no mixing thing). All along the way there are many secrets to uncover. And I low key aspire to be like  Ysabeau (Matthew's vampire mother/maker). 

Book 2: Shadow of Night
They go back to 1590 (think Shakespeare, Elizabethan England), Matthew "changes" because of his multiple identities, I like all the historical references and stuff. Deborah Harkness did her homework (and a lot of "magical storytelling"), so there's a lot to google along the way and read up on like Grisham's Exchange etc. Enters Gallowglass, Matthew's nephew, who eventually falls in love with Diana and protects her from the past all the way until the present, which is in book 1, and then has to leave because he cannot have her :( There's Prague as well, magical lessons, alchemy, spy stuff, vampire stuff, hunting for the lost book etc. Courtly life in both Prague and England (where Elizabeth doesn't like Diana, unsurprisingly). This book touches on a lot of historical figures, so wikipedia away. They get to see the book of life before its broken, three pages get torn (like how it was at the start of the story when Diana unknowingly met the conditions of the spell), many people get killed along the way, and they go back to the present at the end of the book. But by then Diana is a pretty powerful witch already. Her witchy teachers are cute, especially Goody Alsop. Oh, and Diana is pregnant with Matthew's child. Mixing. 

Book 3: The Book of Life 
They go back to the present, Benjamin (Matthew's vampire foe turned son with blood rage -> Too many biological explanations really so it can't go in the summary) endangers Diana and other witches like her by trying to impregnate them, Diana gives birth (basically breaking the rules and becoming targeted by like, everyone), Matthew gets captured and tortured like his awesome father Philip, Diana and all goes on a rescue mission, they find out Benjamin was the one who tortured Philip, kills Benjamin. On the sideline there's also the discovering of the magical significance and finding the three missing pages, in the end they realise the congregation was set up to prevent creatures mixing and giving birth to powerful beings that are magical and long lived, the convenant is repealed, Matthew heals, and the world is saved. 

Okay I think that's  most of it even though I left out like 60% of the people and story. 

Omg I can't wait haha.
Ciao ;)

I guess in life, the adversities we overcome make us the people we are. 
The tougher the circumstance, the stronger we grow to become. 
But at the same time, just like the stems underwater in current, we need to learn to bend in order not to be broken. 
​
Strength, With Love.

When I paid the $100 application fee I felt like I was throwing it to lottery. You know, like, I thought that there was no chance I was going to make it. But what prompted me to even try? Serendipity, I guess. I was reading my relatives' affidavit and drafting our reply point-by-point to our lawyer when I thought, I might as well be reading law.
We draft our reply (lay out the facts and reply to what the other side is saying), send it to the lawyer so that the lawyer can draft a draft (though sometimes they just copy chunks from our email and paste it in), then send back for our confirmation (so I can read what I wrote again) before it becomes an affidavit filed to court (and they send a copy to us after its filed, and I read it again). So yeah, a lot of reading for a non-legally trained person. 

I didn't consider another law course other than the SMU Juris Doctor, because what was the point of trying multiple schools when there's just one you want (and you don't buy lottery from both Singapore Pools AND illegal bookies right?). I've been browsing the course site for a few years and I felt that SMU's pedagogy was different and more engaging, and everything just feels right to me. 

[This article has been edited for grammar on 1 May 2020, and also because the SEO for this blogpost has matured so much that I am no longer comfortable sharing about my family drama in detail. All I can say is, gosh, my writing isn't perfect but it has gotten A LOT better after two years in SOL.]

So, the SMU Juris Doctor application.
Summarised timeline with possibly useless comments: 

1. Apply online [Deadline was 2 March] 
   I only knew about it like, 3 or 4 days before the closing date. Previously when I visited it, it was never during the application period so, providence. 
2. Cobble up whatever transcripts you have, working experience, extra curricular activities like like your CCA, leadership experience, volunteering and social welfare activities. 
   Write your essay, basically build your paper package and hope you're interesting enough that it doesn't get chucked aside. 
3. Think till you get a headache about who to trouble as your two referees.
   Preferably, if I didn't remember wrongly, a lecturer who can attest to your learning abilities as well as another who can vouch for your working attitude and experience. I didn't do exactly that.
   The referees can either send their referral in directly via email (I opted for this so they're more comfortable being honest as well) or have them send it to you to include in your package, though it has to be sealed. I didn't have time anyways (see point 1 again). 
4. Hope for the best, but don't let yourself get your hopes too high in case your heart breaks. 
5. Email came informing me that the written test was on 15 March! [7 March]
   I credit my being accepted at this point to my referees <3<3.
6. Written test [15/16 March] 
   I went early enough to be let into the earlier written test slot. There were about maybe 30 people in that lecture room? And there was another lecture room with people, over two days.
   Anyway, they're supposedly testing your writing and reasoning abilities, so you don't need to have legal knowledge. The case was a hypothetical case, the names were funny if you pronounced them in your head - clearly the setter had a sense of humour, and the hypothetical location was out of a game I think.
   We had to answer two essay questions in an hour. You are provided with an extract of a statute related to your case study, as well as an earlier version of the same law (which reminded me to take historical relativity into consideration). 
   [post-add on] A fellow classmate shared that she had prepared for the written test by doing timed practices, but honestly, till now I think they're just looking for logical thought and your writing. Looking at how this post was written previously (though really I was just ranting the first time I wrote it), I don't think you need to do any English assessment practices haha. 
7. It was an interesting experience really. Probably the coolest "exam paper" I've ever taken.
   Again, Hope for the best, but don't let yourself get your hopes too high in case your heart breaks. 
8. Email came informing that the pair interview was on 7 April! [23 March]
   Insane, its like I cleared the second hurdle unknowingly. I mean, to some extent I was exposed to legal writing (you can't read almost a decade of email exchange between lawyers and submissions to court without picking up a tiny bit of how the lawyers think and write), and I majored in History for my first degree (minored in Geography, Social Studies was the free gift). The hypothetical thinking process is kinda like what I was supposed to teach in humanities, so really, come as you are. When you are ready the opportunities will present themselves. 
9. Faculty Interview [7 April]
   "Two candidates will be interviewed together by two members of our School of Law faculty in a session that will last around 20 minutes. Please note that the interviewers would not have read your application package."
   This was the most stressful I guess? There was no indication of what they would ask, couldn't have read the entire Singapore Statutes Online, so I read more than usual on current affairs and hoped I wouldn't have to express my views about POTUS *rolls eyes*. In the end during the interview (do not take this as reference because its a dynamic conversation),  I guess they wanted a feel of who you are and whether you are suited to the course. I mean, I've interviewed so many people for student leadership I can tell you many a times its about the gut feel you give people rather than the perfect answers you give.
   They asked about our views about the CPF scheme, HDB policies, the Rich-poor divide, Social safety nets, whether you think corporate law is better than family law... I shouldn't have been stressed? Then again, my friend is a clearly smart academic fella who will thrash me in terms of grades when we start studying (if he got in, which I hope he did), but he had to confess he didn't know about the CPF scheme during the interview. I mean, good thing to do rather than try to pretend you know what you're saying and end up sounding like an idiot. 
   I wasn't competitive against the guy who went in with me. We might both get in or both get rejected, so really there's no point in competing. I made friends with him and chatted while we were waiting, ​and then I crushed my interview form because I opened the door for him with the hand that was holding the form. Boy, the form looked bad when I placed it in front of the interviewers haha :( 

Results would come out in mid-may. And there you have it, the application timeline :) 

When the letter dated 20 April came, I couldn't believe it. Its a surreal feeling where I'm filled with disbelief on the inside, the surface of me is ecstatic, and the aura around me feels like a dream, and then I went through a period of struggle to decide on whether to accept the placement offer. 

[post add-on] There's always been a rather percentage of people who drop out. Around 20%. My class started with 30, and we're left with 22 from the original batch now, though by the time you reach your second year students from previous batches who had taken a leave of absence of deferred modules start to join the class. The first two payments are really close together, so some people would have spent over $20k before they decided to quit. It's just that sometimes reading law isn't what it seems on the surface, and it's really not for everyone.
Oh, and prepare to be amazed by how you can feel that you're learning so much, and at the same time feel like you're completely stupid for being confused over the concepts. I think I spent my first year feeling that way, humbling. 

If you're interested in the SMU JD Application, write in and I'll answer to the best of my abilities. :) 

Cheers,
Mori