I Mayday-ed but actually wouldn't have had it any other way - Family Drama / SMU Juris Doctor

Around one and a half months of turning 30, and I think this is probably the most exciting year of my life. Either that or I'm having my mid/one-third life crisis. 

Speaking of how long we'll live, I mentioned to my Mum yesterday something along the lines of "if you have another 20 years" and her reply was "10 years can already, I don't need to live so long". Hello, you are only 60. *Please live long :( I will never be ready for a world without you and Dad* <- but too mushy to say in real life. 

This is probably going to be my longest post ever, and its a rant post, please stop reading unless you like family drama or are here to find out more about the SMU JD application process. 

Anyways, my point is, I was so emotional on 26 May because that marked 1 year since I tendered to quit teaching. I wanted to post something on that day actually, but guess what, I didn't have time to sit down and draft a post. And "1 year and a day ago" sounds lame so... I guess I let that post fly and waited for a good time to Mayday. 

A week ago I was faced with the dilemma of whether to continue running Enchanted Fiore (and study at the same time) or to give up studying and run my dad's new venture idea of a Seafood Grill restaurant + Desserts Cafe. Trust me when I say I'm very sure there is no way I can study, run Enchanted Fiore AND 1.5 restaurants. Twin said the requirement would be to duplicate myself rather than just split myself in half. Its true. So yeah, cannot be done. We've made a family decision since then. 

So now that I've paid advance tuition fee of $5,400 to SMU, I guess I can share about it. 

I. so. did. not. expect. to. get. in.

Its like when I paid the $100 application fee I kinda felt like I was throwing it to lottery you know, like, there was no chance I was going to make it. But why did I even try? I was reading rotten relatives' affidavit and drafting our draft affidavit reply to our lawyer when I thought, I might as well read law. Oh yah, you know we draft our reply on email, to send to the lawyer so that the lawyer can draft a draft affidavit to send back for our confirmation before it becomes an affidavit filed to court (and they send a copy to us after its filed). So haha, a lot of reading for a non-law person. 

Never considered another course other than the SMU JD, because what was the point of trying multiple schools when there's just one you aspire to get in. I've been browsing the course for a few years.

Rotten relatives' were relishing kicking us around like defenceless puppies for the past decades because my Dad is a nice man. ​They were my Dad's siblings. I can only imagine how much bullying he had to suffer since young. They are not correct, and they are not right, but they are bullies who in Hokkien "Dua Sia Yah" (Win because they're loud). And they spread rumours and tell stories to the extended relatives to make my dad out to be the villain, which hurts him when his elder relatives chastise him. But he doesn't speak up for himself. I'll just direct people who think my personality is too strong to this rant post. Family makes you the person you are. And now that we have a lawyer who relishes in bullying bullies, Evil puppet goes like (wayanging dated 1 June 2018, sent to the group with their siblings, cousins and elder relatives):

• "They will have short life as they don't honour their parents."
  That's a lie, they claim they have "instructions" from my grandparents, but what they say benefits themselves and directly contradicts the wills. 
• "People are starting to get wicked, selfish and care for themselves."
  I note that Evil puppet uses the word "starting". You mean, we're starting to take proper, legal actions and stand up for ourselves? Because my dad no longer allows you fungi to bully him he's wicked and selfish? OR that finally people are "starting" because all you rotten relatives have been wicked and selfish for like since Singapore achieved independence and you were born? You guys got worse since grandfather died. Anyway, selfish and only care for yourself is synonymous.
• The devil place evil thoughts, greedy in their mind to do evil deed.
  I wonder how do people grow up without a sense of shame. That double standard is astounding.  Like, when you typed that it didn't occur to you that you don't have the right to say that? 
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect
  
  

​Its a shame being an asshole isn't illegal. They'd be serving life sentence. 
Pardon the angst, its fresh today, and I get a refill of angst around three days a week. 

Back to the SMU Juris Doctor application. Summarised timeline with possibly useless comments: 

1. Apply online [Dateline 2 March] 
   I only knew about it like, 3 or 4 days before the closing date. Previous times when I click and read up it was never during application, 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 they don't chuck it away. 
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 that.
   They can either send it in directly via email (I asked them to do that) or send it to you and you include it in your package, but it has to be sealed. I didn't have time anyways (see point 1). 
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 written test was on 15 March [7 March]
   I credit my being accepted at this point to my referees <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, and two days.
   Anyway, they're supposedly testing your writing and reasoning abilities, so you didn't need to have legal knowledge. The case was a hypothetical case, the names were funny if you pronounced them - clearly the setter had a sense of humour, and some hypothetical location was out of a game I think.
   You had to answer two essay questions in an hour. You are provided with an extract of the current statute related to your case study, as well as an earlier version of the same law (this reminded me to take historical relativity into consideration). 
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 interview was on 7 April [23 March]
   Insane, its like second hurdle cleared without knowing how. I mean, to some extent I learnt to dissect the legal wording and address what was needed in the essay (you can't read almost a decade of emails and submissions to court without picking up a 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, and really the case study thinking process is kinda like what they want the new generation of students to learn instead of memorising historical facts like in our time). 
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, 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 other 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 :( 
   Oh, in case you didn't know, the Secondary 3 social studies textbook has a chapter on how laws are passed through parliament. It was challenging to teach because at 15, they don't really care. It also has all the agencies in Singapore, what functions they serve, fair wage measures, CPF, HDB, transnational terrorism, many many things more than just the low SES rubbish supplementary book. 

Results would come out in mid-may. 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 I need to get back to work now. 

If you think this post is too long to read, law isn't for you. This is my favourite high court judgment to date: 
http://www.singaporelaw.sg/sglaw/laws-of-singapore/case-law/free-law/high-court-judgments/22811-ong-teck-soon-executor-of-the-estate-of-ong-kim-nang-deceased-v-ong-teck-seng-and-another

If you're interested in the SMU JD Application, write in and I'll answer what I can.

Cheers!
xoxo <3