[Editor’s note: Detours from home is a Rappler column where readers can share about the new things they have been doing while in quarantine. In this essay, a new lawyer shares how she celebrated passing the bar exam a bit differently. You, too, can share your own Detours from home story.]
Fulfilled yet depleted. Straight from the six-month-long grind for the bar examinations in November, this was how I ended 2019.
With the adrenaline rush subsiding, it seemed I was drained of all my energy. I felt I was still too exhausted to go back to juggling roles as a working mom and wife. Having to get back to normalcy in my life, I prayed, as I went through the first months of 2020, that things would slow down a bit, for me to catch up.
Things did not just slow down. Time stood still.
In the early days of March, we found ourselves in the middle of this pandemic. In a blink of an eye, our children’s classes abruptly ended, offices closed, leisure trips cancelled, transportations stopped, summer plans turned blurry. People were forced to stay home.
Our family dates to the cinemas were replaced with weekend cabana nights, where the five of us would sleep together in our cabana and binge-watch movies from Netflix. Eating out this time meant literally eating in our backyard. Strolling in the malls became short walks in our garden. Chatting with our children had become more frequent and much more fun. Nobody is in a hurry, nobody’s going anywhere! I had my much needed time out.
I felt that the entire difficult month I spent away from my family in Bacolod to take the bar exams in Manila was being compensated by this unexpected chance of having the time all to ourselves.
On April 29, 2020, the bar result was released. And I passed! Although it was far from the traditional release made in the Supreme Court premises, seeing my name online as one of the bar passers was as equally exhilarating! Instead of having a big celebration, thanksgiving had become more intimate and meaningful. It now meant a whisper of prayer of thanks to Him, and phone calls to those few people to personally share the good news. Nothing extravagant, but all whole-hearted.
Things are even getting more interesting. Instead of a ceremony to be held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), the new lawyers will be taking oath via online video conference. All throughout my entire bar journey, I had envisioned myself at the PICC, beaming with pride as I take my oath. Never had I imagined that I would instead be doing it alone, in our bedroom, with the white wall as background, facing my laptop.
Will it make it less memorable for me? Absolutely not! On the contrary, this turned out to be a historic event, as our batch could be the only one who’s having an online oathtaking, ever.
Passing the bar exams is my personal victory, but achieving it during this pandemic makes it much sweeter. It has been a very special gift from God not only for me but for the family as well. Amidst the fear the COVID-19 brought, it has given us hope that great things still do happen in 2020.
This pandemic is teaching us to go back to the basics, to reach to our core. It teaches us that our everyday lives can be small celebrations. Getting by each day, with our health and families intact, is by itself a victory. This has been a wake-up call, a nudge, for us to appreciate what really matters. Because life, when stripped of all its sugarcoats, and with all its simplicity, is still beautiful. – Rappler.com
Amor Leilani M. Tayo is a wife and mom to three young children, from Bacolod City, Negros Occidental. I work as a CPA. I took and passed the 2019 bar examinations.
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