Welcome to Faves corner . Today, we're navigating anxiety, the tension of waiting, celebration, grief🫠.
Happy new month my sweet subscribers 🌹!
AWAITING RESULTS
Nigerian law school and body of benchers -1000………Favour- 0. Waiting five months and some weeks for results is nerve-wracking. During that period, I realized I had become strangely comfortable with anxiety. Not that it’s good but I have grown used to it.
I found myself thinking of the song "HAPPY" by NF, where he wondered: "Who he would be if he was happy?" before he found hope. I understood that, not because I was sad but because I was anxious.
The day before results were released, I felt calm. I kept asking myself why I wasn’t afraid, then paused to ask: "Why would I want to be afraid?" Moments later, I started fidgeting, like it was a pattern I had to fulfill just to live out the day.
It reminded me of NF’s attachment to depression. I had grown attached to anxiety because I was used to it. That begs the question—What if we don’t know how to handle new emotions? Sure, there are times we want to express happiness, vulnerability, even anger but maybe we’d rather stick to what we know.
It also reminded me of Inside out 2 where Joy expressed mild anger because she was called delusional. She did agree and said it was hard being positive all the time while the other emotions complained all the time. I loved the shock on their face when they saw another side of her 😂. Beyond positivity being her core strength, maybe joy wouldn’t know what to do with sadness or fear because she sees the good in every situation. Anyway, that’s something I wanted to share. Be in tune with new emotions.
WHY AFTER MY BIRTHDAY?
I really hoped to attend the Call to Bar ceremony before my birthday. That didn’t happen. Oh, what it would’ve meant to be a lawyer at 21 but I turned 22 last month. Being a lawyer at 22 isn’t bad, I just value timelines. It would’ve been nice to hit that milestone earlier.
Just another reminder that life doesn’t always go as planned.
PHOTOSHOOT
Call to bar comes with expenses: the party, souvenirs, wig and gown, clearance fees, clothes, jewelry, shoes, makeup, and of course, the photoshoot.
Honestly, I started feeling insecure. I overthought everything down to my clothes, my looks, my hairstyle. And money? I needed bastard money. I did not want to go to the photo studio alone so my friend came for moral support.
All my photos looked so good. It's heartbreaking selecting just five pictures out of the many we took.
Did I love the outcome of the photos? Absolutely! I stared at them like I hadn’t seen beauty before. I hot die and that's why I must make money to become even hotter.
Shout out to my makeup artist and photographer, they really understood the assignment.
To be fair, I needed a really good picture this year.
CLEARANCE
I hate the process but I love the results.
The process of Admission
The process of Exams
The process of University clearance
The process of NYSC registration/clearance
The process of Opening a bank account
The process of sitting still till you get your hair done
Yadi yadi yada...you get the drill.
It’s a lot. If it's not the queues, it's the paperwork, the endless printing, the orderly arrangement of documents and fees to pay. That sigh of relief when it’s done? Amazing.
Thankfully, clearance was online this year. That’s a win especially for those who don’t live in Abuja but that also came with its own problems.
I was fully cleared for CTB , then my name appeared in a PDF that my payment to the body of benchers had not been confirmed. I don't even want to begin to explain the stress I went through. I went to Nigeria Law school, Bwari. Never in my twenty two years of living in Abuja have I ever gone somewhere so distant. It was a waste of time by the way and I had to go to jabi to get it resolved. Thank you to the cleaner who assisted and my uncle who helped me.
Later that evening, I got inducted as an associate member of the Chartered Mediators and Conciliator of Nigeria. I was excited to see my people❤️
CALL TO BAR CEREMONY (CTB)
CTB lasts three days due to the large crowd. Mine took place today. I brought my mum as a guest because we are entitled to just one invite.
I received my certificates. I'm yet to enroll at the Supreme Court (thank goodness that is now online) and your girl is a lawyer.
Yayyyyy!!!🎉
PARTY AFTER PARTY
After my call to bar, my reception was another eventful thing that occured today. I wish I could put into words how funny it was. It was really nice but also a long day. I'm not capping when I said we took up to 100 photos or even more.
Oh the food, the drinks, the small chops, the cake, the money, the gifts😭❤️. God bless everyone for me.
I saw my friends too🥺❤️.
P.S- we sang a hymn at the reception and the elderly people did their thing. It was too funny😂.
GRIEF
I hate when I don’t understand the logic behind things.
This is about the grief of “almost.” We lost coursemates at different points: before externship, before the exam, after the exam, while waiting for results, and weeks before the ceremony.
It’s sickening. These were people with dreams and hope gone in the blink of an eye. The one that did things to my brain was the death of Ibrahim. His name was mentioned in the hall today while we observed a minute of silence for those we lost and tears dropped. It even feels weird referring to him in past tense. God💔!!!
Rest in peace Ibro, you're forever in my heart❤️.
This is when delay becomes denial.
Happy Call to Bar to those celebrating this week. From the elders to the young ones we lost, happy call to bar. You would have made great lawyers.
I cannot wait for the end of call to bar. The traffic in Abuja currently is crazy❤️.
Till next time,
Faves 💚
Congratulations child
The courage,the resilience and the strength to keep pushing finally came with a CROWN... Cheers to more wins fav❤