Judy Lardizabal was so afraid she would flunk the bar exams that she stayed home after taking off early from work lest she flood her office with tears of frustration.
But her name was not only on the list, she placed first in the exams and even ended up as the first graduate from San Sebastian Recoletos College of Law to top the bar.
Lardizabal, 28, a technical assistant at the National Irrigation Administration, told the Inquirer that she never really thought she would pass the exams so she did not even want to see the list of passers.
“I did not want to see the list because I was afraid that when I looked under L, Lardizabal would not be in it,” she laughingly recalled.
She confided that she was actually more afraid of letting down people who prayed for her and put so much confidence in her abilities through the years if she flunked.
“While I was waiting for the results, I was really already thinking that if I did not pass I would have to repeat it and earn money for tuition and other expenses for my review. I was just more worried of what effect my flunking would have on the people who have expected so much from me,” Lardizabal said.
She smiled remembering that as early as her third year in law school at San Sebastian, a professor predicted she would top the bar.
Lardizabal showed the Inquirer a Remedial Law midterm examination she had taken during her 3rd year for the second semester of school year 2006 to 2007, where she scored 99 because the professor believed “there is no such thing as a 100 score.”
Law school dean Willard B. Reano had written in the back of the cover page: “No mistake? You’ll top the bar! Work… work-read… Never stop!!! Excellent.”
That remark proved prophetic.
She smiled in recollection that her professor during the review on the law on taxation left her hiding her blush and ducking in her seat each time she would be called the “wonder girl who would top the bar” after she aced a pre-bar test on the subject.
On Friday, hours before the list of bar passers was to be released by the Supreme Court, she admitted that she had left early from work because she did not want to find out through the Internet that her name was not on the list.
“I would only flood the office with tears if I flunked,” she laughed, adding that she also did not want to return to her hometown in Imus, Cavite because she might catch the result while in transit and did not want to start crying and howling inside a passenger bus.
She was at her house in Quezon City when she received a text message at around 8:30 p.m. from a former classmate.
“Judy number 1 ka,” it said.
“I thought it was a joke. I even asked the friend who sent me the message if it was because it was the only text I received that said I topped the bar. The others just congratulated me and said I passed,” Lardizabal pointed out, adding that it was enough for her to know that she had made the list of new lawyers.
A call on her mobile phone from a colleague confirmed that she had topped the bar, something she had never expected.
“I was only praying I would pass. I never anticipated I would make it among the top notchers, much more that I would place No. 1,” she said.
Her mother, Rebecca, was crying and gushing how proud she was after Lardizabal broke the news to her family in Imus over the phone.
“My family is not that well-off. My mother runs a mini grocery at a marketplace. My father (Deodato) is a tricycle driver. After I graduated from UP (University of the Philippines), they helped me with my tuition and I had to work more so I could enroll at law school,” she told the Inquirer.
Judy is the middle child in a brood of three. She recalled that her desire to be a lawyer came only while she was doing her on-the-job training for her undergraduate course in social work at UP.
“We helped non-government organizations in cases of battered and abused women. We handled the psycho-social aspect of the cases and had to turn the victims over to lawyers for the legal aspect,” Lardizabal said.
She thought then that her capacity to help the women was so limited that she figured, “Why not go into law?”
It was the first time that she decided she wanted to become a lawyer.
Lardizabal revealed that she was not so much into cramming.
Asked how she prepared to take on the bar exams, she said, “I started preparing since my first day in law school. In those four years, it was all preparation for the bar. The five months of review was purely a refresher.”
She added that the run-up to the examinations was a lot of putting more time to bone up on subjects she knew she was not doing very well at.
After the bar examinations, the long wait for the results left her weeks of sleepless nights and nightmares she flunked.
There were also dreams she passed.
“I was close then to making a tally of which kind of dream was more frequent to predict if I made it or not,” the bar topnotcher laughed.
Ironically she had her only relaxed sleep on the eve of the release of the exam results.
Lardizabal said that she frequented the St. Joseph Parish on Aurora Boulevard and attended Mass as often as she could, thinking that after the exams, “everything was in God’s hands.”
She recalled that she even made a deal with God that if she passed, “Magiging mabait naman ako na abogado. Hindi ako magiging katulad ng iba (I will be a good lawyer; I will not be like others).”
“I guess, He took my word for it and maybe I can help more people this way,” Lardizabal said.
was so afraid she would flunk the bar exams that she stayed home after taking off early from work lest she flood her office with tears of frustration.But her name was not only on the list, she placed first in the exams and even ended up as the first graduate from San Sebastian Recoletos College of Law to top the bar.
Lardizabal, 28, a technical assistant at the National Irrigation Administration, told the Inquirer that she never really thought she would pass the exams so she did not even want to see the list of passers.
“I did not want to see the list because I was afraid that when I looked under L, Lardizabal would not be in it,” she laughingly recalled.
She confided that she was actually more afraid of letting down people who prayed for her and put so much confidence in her abilities through the years if she flunked.
“While I was waiting for the results, I was really already thinking that if I did not pass I would have to repeat it and earn money for tuition and other expenses for my review. I was just more worried of what effect my flunking would have on the people who have expected so much from me,” Lardizabal said.
She smiled remembering that as early as her third year in law school at San Sebastian, a professor predicted she would top the bar.
Lardizabal showed the Inquirer a Remedial Law midterm examination she had taken during her 3rd year for the second semester of school year 2006 to 2007, where she scored 99 because the professor believed “there is no such thing as a 100 score.”
Law school dean Willard B. Reano had written in the back of the cover page: “No mistake? You’ll top the bar! Work… work-read… Never stop!!! Excellent.”
That remark proved prophetic.
She smiled in recollection that her professor during the review on the law on taxation left her hiding her blush and ducking in her seat each time she would be called the “wonder girl who would top the bar” after she aced a pre-bar test on the subject.
On Friday, hours before the list of bar passers was to be released by the Supreme Court, she admitted that she had left early from work because she did not want to find out through the Internet that her name was not on the list.
“I would only flood the office with tears if I flunked,” she laughed, adding that she also did not want to return to her hometown in Imus, Cavite because she might catch the result while in transit and did not want to start crying and howling inside a passenger bus.
She was at her house in Quezon City when she received a text message at around 8:30 p.m. from a former classmate.
“Judy number 1 ka,” it said.
“I thought it was a joke. I even asked the friend who sent me the message if it was because it was the only text I received that said I topped the bar. The others just congratulated me and said I passed,” Lardizabal pointed out, adding that it was enough for her to know that she had made the list of new lawyers.
A call on her mobile phone from a colleague confirmed that she had topped the bar, something she had never expected.
“I was only praying I would pass. I never anticipated I would make it among the top notchers, much more that I would place No. 1,” she said.
Her mother, Rebecca, was crying and gushing how proud she was after Lardizabal broke the news to her family in Imus over the phone.
“My family is not that well-off. My mother runs a mini grocery at a marketplace. My father (Deodato) is a tricycle driver. After I graduated from UP (University of the Philippines), they helped me with my tuition and I had to work more so I could enroll at law school,” she told the Inquirer.
Judy is the middle child in a brood of three. She recalled that her desire to be a lawyer came only while she was doing her on-the-job training for her undergraduate course in social work at UP.
“We helped non-government organizations in cases of battered and abused women. We handled the psycho-social aspect of the cases and had to turn the victims over to lawyers for the legal aspect,” Lardizabal said.
She thought then that her capacity to help the women was so limited that she figured, “Why not go into law?”
It was the first time that she decided she wanted to become a lawyer.
Lardizabal revealed that she was not so much into cramming.
Asked how she prepared to take on the bar exams, she said, “I started preparing since my first day in law school. In those four years, it was all preparation for the bar. The five months of review was purely a refresher.”
She added that the run-up to the examinations was a lot of putting more time to bone up on subjects she knew she was not doing very well at.
After the bar examinations, the long wait for the results left her weeks of sleepless nights and nightmares she flunked.
There were also dreams she passed.
“I was close then to making a tally of which kind of dream was more frequent to predict if I made it or not,” the bar topnotcher laughed.
Ironically she had her only relaxed sleep on the eve of the release of the exam results.
Lardizabal said that she frequented the St. Joseph Parish on Aurora Boulevard and attended Mass as often as she could, thinking that after the exams, “everything was in God’s hands.”
She recalled that she even made a deal with God that if she passed, “Magiging mabait naman ako na abogado. Hindi ako magiging katulad ng iba (I will be a good lawyer; I will not be like others).”
“I guess, He took my word for it and maybe I can help more people this way,” Lardizabal said.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment