Let's pick up the pieces and continue with the journey

You’d be forgiven for thinking that I left all of the work on the backburner to enjoy myself during the break. While I originally intended to balance the backdated readings with movie nights, it didn’t come to fruition because I fell under the weather right after I returned from a little getaway up north. It threw every other plan I had out of the window as I was in bed, nursing a fever, sore throat and back aches - yet I felt well enough for grocery shopping and the weekly obligations. I’ll chalk it up to the lower temperatures combined with the exacerbation of sleep deprivation due to various factors, one of which is assignments.



Taken in Fancy Burger, Synagogue Place, Adelaide

I can’t complain much because I have a bucket load of matters to deal with now. With the exam schedule comes the gaping truth that all of my final assignments are due in the same week as my Administrative Law exam (yes, you read that right!)

Talk about the timing!

On the bright side, my holiday starts at least two weeks earlier than my legal peers. I don’t mean to gloat or shove it down anyone’s throat, but I want to keep an open mind about it to calm the anxious nerves. Administrative Law has loads of legislation to understand and stew over it… and truth be told, I’ll have to start the revision and practice as soon as I complete the draft for my Indo-Pacific Foreign Policy final essay - or I’ll be screwed big time.

So yeah, summer break will be the time when I’ll truly allow my body to slide into hibernation mode to recover abroad - where it’ll be easier and tougher to contact me. I mean, chances of me leaving most of the social media accounts on hiatus are highly likely due to some undisclosed reasons.



No one likes being in bed the entire day; it doesn’t matter if you’re under the weather or not. I remember purchasing “The Best of Me” from the bookstore a couple of years ago and my heart ached after reading it. It was as if Fate had other plans and boy, it did. Amanda was dealt a second blow without any advance warning after not being afforded the chance to carve her own path at life.

You’ll have to watch the movie to understand my inference, but I must emphasize on the difference between the film adaptation and the book at the end. In the film, Amanda was on the phone with her son while at work, whereas in the book, the mother and son were back home, debating whether to file the medical application to investigate the shocking news.

What struck a chord with me was Amanda’s confession that “I had so many plans and I don’t know what happened” (44:15). The reader response lens drew the relevance to Amanda because I’ve asked myself this - from time to time. The original path that I envisioned myself on when I was in Grade 1 included a double degree (Law and Creative Writing). It slightly changed when I started high school with the inclusion of a postgraduate in either field. Shortly after I enrolled in college and embarked on the university preparations, I dropped the idea of doing a double degree because I knew that the stress will shorten my life before graduation and left the option of postgraduate at Fate’s hands.

Oh, the rest of October will definitely test my patience and endurance. How am I to complete all three assignments in one piece and still survive the 2.5 hours exam on the last day of that week?