A few days ago, I remembered that I had put my Life List on this website.
And I had the great opportunity of crossing a couple of things off that list. So, I decided to go ahead and Blog about those few things. First things first: Passing the Bar!!!
Yessss!
Finally.
Five days before Bar Results were released, my family got a terrible phone call from the Philippines. One of my mother’s sisters had fallen into a coma. It happened so suddenly: she complained of a headache, and within 2 hours of that statement she was non-responsive.
I felt the added pressure of passing the bar because my mother was already super stressed out with the news of her sister. I couldn’t fail now. If I did, it would break my mom into pieces. I didn’t care so much for myself as I did for her state of mind. I never once brought up that in a few days, the direction of my life for the next six months was going to be decided.
Add to that the fact that my father’s sister and her family was also scheduled to visit us for four days. There was even less time to worry about bar results. I ended up playing to guide for them, driving them through Yosemite for two days, hitting Stanford and shopping, and a day in San Francisco. All that while, I kept my smile and all my churning concerns to myself.
The day of the Bar Results was the day I took my aunt, uncle and cousin to Stanford. We walked through the picturesque campus (yes, it’s killing me to say that, but it’s unfortunately true) keeping up a cheerful chatter the whole day. CCop checked in on me the whole day, and there was a steady stream of well-wishers buzzed through my phone all day. Once, when CCop asked me how I was feeling, I sent him this picture of the Burghers of Calais.
LoL! Yeah, I really did feel the way they looked.
As 6 pm drew closer and closer, I got quieter and quieter. Luckily an old family friend had come to meet up with us and she could talk a mile a minute.
After walking around Stanford, we decided to go shopping. However, it was closing in on 6pm. Instead of telling my visiting relatives that I was going to look at my bar results, I told them I had to write an important email. So, off they went and I stayed behind in the car.
When 6pm hit, I went online (thank you HTC Evo and Sprint everything data plan!) typed in my file number and application numbers, and held my breath.
My file number matched. My application number matched. My full name appeared (yes, all four of them). And finally this statement below it:
The name above appears on the pass list for the February 2011 California Bar Examination.
I felt a slight light-headedness. I HAD to check again. and again. It took a while to sink in…but…
I PASSED.
Thank God.
One less thing to worry about. One less thing to stress over. Six months of my life taken back into my control. And that, of course…gets crossed off my life list.
whew.
And so, the next day when we went to San Francisco, I had the pleasure of being able to share good news with my family at what my brother’s gf ALin called my “Smarty Pants” dinner (See my shirt).
Stop and Stare 