OPEN LETTER TO THOSE WHO DID NOT MEET THE QPI REQUIREMENT

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Sorry to hear the not so good news regarding your law school journey.

I have been there before. It was one of the low-points of my life. It is never easy to accept the fact that despite all your efforts, those sleepless nights, those tons of man-hours dedicated to read the intricacies of the law, that the very institution you think that will be your ticket to becoming a lawyer will be the same one who would close their doors on you.

Despite all that, hold your head up high, dust yourself off and move on.

It will take awhile. The sting of the pain will linger. You start to question the system of the school and the quality of professors or faculty of the school. Worse, you may undermine other law students' achievement. You start to compare yourself to them and you are convinced that you are better than them; that they just got lucky with a better line-up and that some of them have strong ties or influence inside the Dean's office.

I've been there, done that.

Again, acknowledge the frustration and the anger and channel it to something positive. When you transfer to your new school, get to know other people. More often than not, you will meet other people who either have the same experience as you or even worse. This can be a good example of Misery loves company.

For me, my confidence was shaken down to the core but as the cliche goes, If you hit rock bottom, there is no place else to go but up. I suggest that don't take a full load when you transfer to a new school unless you are compelled by your goal to graduate as soon as possible. Allow yourself to adjust to your new environment before taking full load.

Forget about your rowdy, condescending, know-it-all relatives who are oblivious to the difficulty of law school. They may compare you to other people whom they know who are also taking law. What they don't fully comprehend is that it takes different strokes for different folks. Just take their comments or opinions as a challenge to be better in law school.

Don't forget to believe in yourself but not too much. Leave some humility and don't forget to ask the guidance of our Lord.

Don't worry about not reaching the QPI or flunking your subject. Take such failure in a different light, be thankful that at least we experienced it this early rather than later which is **knock on wood** the BAR exams.

It is not the end, we just experienced a bump in the road or detour which changed our plan. Never let your failure in not meeting the QPI requirement define who you are. Never let it dampen your passion to study the law.

As Commissioner Rene Sarmiento used to say during his class, "All of you will become lawyers, it is only a matter of time"

We can do this or should I say, "We got this!"

Your Friend,

Allan