Living the law school "life"

Almost a week back, my friend Sadhvi and I were sharing a cab back from Park Street to college when we realised that it had been almost six months since we came from all over the country to NUJS. It struck me, as the cab strode across Calcutta and into Salt Lake City, that one semester or 10% of my law school life had already been lived.

I look at the six months that have gone by, and I’m surprised at how different I’ve become. When you come to a national law school with a father for a lawyer, well people do have some sort of expectations of you. When you come with a father for a Supreme Court lawyer with a bunch of masters in all sorts of law, people have EXPECTATIONS from you. When it was decided that I was coming to Calcutta to attend law school, I had my mind set- a straight 6 and above GPA, Moot, debate, theatre- I wanted it all. I promised myself I wouldn’t get involved in trouble, I wouldn’t date and I’d be friendly and talk to everyone.

Six months makes the past a mere dream.

Here I am- hoping to pass Contracts-I, which in other words would mean a 2 GPA, I never mooted nor debated. I got into the theatre team because I was one of the only two girls that auditioned. I’ve been in enough shit, I really like this guy and plan on letting him know soon and I’ve already made friends and enemies.My point here is that having all those grandiose plans maybe not be that good a thing after all. Don’t get into this never ending phase of planning it like this or that. More importantly, don’t let competition bog you down. As my wise mother says, and I echo her, “There will always be someone who is better than you; the only one you should be competing with is yourself.” And as for the expectations, it doesn’t matter to you if you don’t let it matter to you. For me, it matters only if it’s from the people I care about and who care about me back. As long as they’re still proud of me, and support me in whatever I do, I shouldn’t really bother about these “expectations”. Do what you think is right, and forget about the rest. What’s done is done, and it’s done most probably for the good. Life’s of bigger and greater things, and the true test lies with your heart, not your head.