GETTING MY LAW DEGREE
July 15 Friday 2005

Where were you when you received your university results? Most of my peers received their results in the UK. I received mine halfway around the world and three years later.

It’s taken me six long years to get my law degree. In that time, some of my friends have gone on to do another degree, completed a Masters course or started their careers (and even married). I’ve only just graduated.

I never intended it to take this long. I had everything planned out once, but then my mother got cancer and everything changed. Priorities changed.

So when people ask me if I’m upset that it’s taken me so long to get my degree, I say “no”. I don’t regret leaving my studies to be with my Mum. I don’t regret taking a gap-year to allow God to heal my heart. And so when people compare me to my friends, I simply draw strength from the knowledge that I did the right thing.

Where was I when I received my university results? I was on top of a ladder painting my kitchen with Yugo. In the most comical but sincere fashion, I answered my phone, toppled off my apex in sheer joy and then plunged foot-first into a bucket of green paint… I got a 2:1.

Addendum: I took a photo of this plant in Wan Chai MTR Station. It’s remarkable because I haven’t seen any “calico” china in Hong Kong before. It made me think of my mother because she used to collect it when we were in the UK; and now I do too.