One more time...

So I went anyway, with great trepidation..mixed feelings and a handful of cynicism. But just as I put my foot across the piazza, everything took a life of its own. Familiar faces with genuine smiles, it has only been half a year since we last saw each other but already it seems as though a lifetime has passed... for me especially to have my life turned upside down and again right side up. Sometimes I feel as though my world is inside those novelty globes especially right there in that piazza with the falling of the snow. Soon I was lost in an endless embrace, exchanging stories..giggling at everything and anything.

It all came rushing back, last year. It was intense..it was rapid and endless examinations one after another. Every other week we would be sitting for some test or a rather so that when the real thing came it was met both with excitement and utter boredom. But most of all I remember the silly episodes that would no doubt linger just a little bit longer. The taping of our submissions when we thought it'd be funny to do it in an accent or when I did it in white..the weird lighting in the recording room made it look like it was just my head floating about and my palms...or when C decided to record herself at home instead but rewinded it to the wrong bit where she was scolding her granny for making fun of her.... that class was one of many that was filled with just laughter.

The nights out we had, when after a few we would take turns to shout at the traffic..momentary madness or that summer where we would spend the days lying in the park...strawberries and wine just because champagne was never an option. The time when we had to walk into this rough neighborhood to do our pro bono and we would start adopting this gangsta walk just to look like we belong or rather not to get mugged! When we decided to explore the city just by walking aimlessly and getting lost behind Lincoln's Inn. The hours we spent just toiling away in that library..always on the third floor...top floor.. the last table on the left. That little sandwich shop where I'd order the same chicken and sweetcorn and mayo until L could take it no more and forced me to try every single different cafe in Chancery Lane.

But along with that I remember the pressure, the stress as the reality of what we had to achieve was so great and that we were only just at the beginning of it all. The legendary shouting matches between N and J which would resort in one or the other storming out in tears. The greatest apprehension of all was securing that darned training contract... after so many interviews, countless applications... and me being told like a million times that I would never get one because I needed a visa and no law firm would go to that length when they have lots of applicants to choose from. Doing it anyway with the blind faith that whilst my heart will always be lost to home, it is simply not my time yet.

So there we were, awaiting our own judgement..knowing that our paths will probably never cross as often as we did just a year ago. All these special people I was so blessed to have met, who somehow decided to take a detour where our paths collide before resuming our own destiny...yesterday I relived that moment just for a little while and was without a doubt glad I came to graduate with such fine company.

As I waited there to be called, I let my mind drift and finally understood all that is expected of me. I realised my place and my hopes for the future. It is bigger than everything around me. So whilst Caesar has been warned to be wary of the Ides of March... It is the Kalends that holds the promise of tomorrow. When one door closes, another will open.

There is a good reason they call these ceremonies "commencement
exercises." Graduation is not the end; it's the beginning. ~Orrin
Hatch

I wonder if the quote still applies if it's your third graduation? I am having a moment as I write this post... this is just my graduation..God knows what I'll come up with as the 31st rolls around.
On a personal note I have been told that apparently I have another ceremony when I qualify next year... what the fish???