Lawww.😭

The easiest thing to do as a law student is to make the course your entire personality.

It's really easy.

Because law is tiring. Law is stressful. And if you want to be the best among a thousand lawyers, you need to consistently come out on top.

If you're a law student in Nigeria, there's the struggle for internships, getting a good CGPA, surviving Law School's negative marking system, making a name for yourself, and making a name for your school.

One of my lecturers says that to study law, you must read at least six hours a day.

Now, I don't personally agree with that sentiment, and frankly, I'm too lazy to do that.

But reading hard is part of the job.

My exams are in a few weeks, and if I'm going to do MUSTAAAAAARD, I need to know at least 150 cases.

At least 150 cases

.

If you're not a law student, that probably sounds like an exaggeration.

Yesterday, I had a test. Our lecturer said it was going to be on Civil Proceedings, and mehn, did I read.

For one topic alone, I learnt about eleven cases.

My lecturer shocked us with something else entirely sha. 😂

But if one topic in one course boasts eleven cases, how much more the four law courses I'm offering and the four units each of them carry?

Law is deeply stressful.

But letting it consume you is worse.

If you're on LinkedIn, come here. You need a hug.

You'll see law creators and check their profiles, and the entire thing is about one internship they did, how they're legal researchers, this Model United Nations, that Model United Nations, Head of LAWSAN Parliament, Director of WALSA Female Forum.

And fear will catch you.

Then you'll discover that this person is in 200 or 300 level.

And you'll ask yourself what are you doing with your life.

There are even these hardworking twins on LinkedIn, Great Wisdom and Great Goodness, one in Law and one in agriculture. Sometimes I catch myself using their pages as a reminder that I have not even scratched the surface yet.

Now, LinkedIn and the things people post there are sometimes grossly exaggerated, but that doesn't mean they aren't true.

The pressure is real.

The comparison is real.

And it's important that you're intentional about not letting that pressure get to you.

Don't let law suffocate you.

Don't let law stop you from having a social life.

Don't let law give you depression.

Don't let your grades define you.

As a law student, you can have four A's, and two B's or C's in a four-unit course can still drag your CGPA down to a 3.something.

Make your worth exceed the scope of law.

If everything connected to law was taken away from you today, what would be left?

Are you nothing outside your course of study?

The funny thing is that I've never actually hated law.

I've always loved it.

I wrote something about it last year. I titled it Sorrows, Laughter and Law. It was about why I chose to study law.

It got about 10 likes.

It pained me. 😂

My mum is a lawyer. My grandpa is a lawyer. My uncle is a lawyer. My aunt is in Law School.

You could call me a nepo law student.

Sometimes, I think I'm in law because it's all I've ever known.

Sometimes I wonder if, without all those lawyers around me, I would have studied law.

Sometimes I ask myself if I should have studied English or Mass Communication instead. Not because they're easier courses, but because I genuinely love that scene.

I talk a lot.

I speak with passion.

Growing up, people always told me I should study law.

It felt like I couldn't be anything else.

Which is funny because somewhere along the line, when I was in SS2, I found writing, or rather, writing found me.

And for a while, I thought maybe I'd study English.

But somehow, I always came back to law.

I always circled right back.

I used to tell my friends that I felt for people studying law without passion, or people who were forced into it, because I'm here voluntarily and it's crazy. 😂

But over the years, I've learnt something important.

Law is a part of me, but it is not my entirety.

I can be a lawyer and still be creative.

I can be a law student and still do fun things.

I can infact merge them.

That's one of the reasons I love Tobeszn so much.

Watching him has reminded me that people are capable of being more than one thing.

That you don't have to squeeze yourself into one box.

That your degree doesn't have to become your entire identity.

That you can build things outside your profession and still excel within it.

That I can hold my degrees in one hand, because let's be honest, being a lawyer is far too stressful for just one degree 😭, and still be a creative in the other.

In fact I can merge them.

And yes, without breaking any RPC rules.

For the non-law students reading this, RPC means Rules of Professional Conduct.

It's kind of strict.🙂

Now, I'm thriving in law.

My CGPA is good.

I hold several positions.

I'm the Director of the West African Law Students Association Editorial Board, For example.

I'm a law student and a writer.

And somehow, this role allows both parts of me to coexist.

The law side is choking sha. 😂

But I've learnt to create a balance.

Maybe that's why I'm writing this article in the first place.

Genuinely, the long and short of it all is this:

Law is a part of me, but it's not me.

And I think that's a lesson every student needs to learn, regardless of their course of study.

Don't lose yourself in law.

Don't lose yourself to law.

Be you.

Authentically.

Law or Nay.