In the Spirit of the Bar Season
Several things triggered this trip down memory lane for me - seeing bar reviewees at Starbucks burning the midnight oil, it being almost the month of September, attending a BiCam Conference at Sofitel Philippine Plaza (formerly Westin), dropping off Roy’s niece Bobbie at DLSU Taft, and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Four years ago I was among those who are panicky, jittery, almost cramming, and ultra nervous on how I will fare in the Bar Exams. What got me through? A lot of things. My family. Roy. My friends. Four years of diligence in law school. A lot of prayers. Strong faith in God. Watching television. Enough sleep. Food. An occassional movie. And the occasional road trips (going to church) with CaDaBarBeQueJan, Charmane (now Attys. Majah Casaje, yours truly, Arvin Barrientos, Ria Berbano, Mildred Que, Azenith Viojan, Charmane Kanahashi, ) and of course, Roy.
I suddenly remembered that out of boredom at 2:00 a.m., I took a picture of my bar review table. Its a small round wooden table which usually contains my bar essentials - water bottle, thermal mug, my small eeyore with a butterfly on his nose, hair ties, fountain pens, hair tie, schedule notebook, keys, post-it flags, post-its, notebook/pad for notes, yellow lion city dermatographs, bookmark, and my current book for the week (pictured above is remedial law by regalado). My harry potter glass was missing in this picture. The white mug is a container for small trash, like the paper wrappings of the dermatograph and the spoiled post-its. Call me obsessive-compulsive but my table, in essence, did not change for 5 months.
I remember having the tv on while taking down notes to keep me company in the wee hours of the morning. I used to be a morning person but during the bar review, I was a night owl. I was watching MTV a lot then, and the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece during the month of August, the olympics where Michael Phelps first shone, and became known.
Starbucks was where I used to get my caffeine fix when I need to be in school early on the few days that I choose to attend review classes at the Ateneo. Westin Philippine Plaza was where we were billeted for the 4 Saturdays of September so that we will be near DLSU Taft - the place of the dreaded Bar Exams for 4 Sundays of September.
Wow, it had been 4 years. How time flies. Other unfortunate souls (that’s how i certainly felt during those times) are going through what I went through. I wish them well. After all the hardwork, in the end, they will find out that it was worth it in terms of character building. 
(Is the professional title worth it? Its for everyone to find out for themselves. haha)
