In 2013 we had a 10th anniversary reunion for the 2003 ASEAN batch and I was the honorary 2002 batch attendee. My ex, the law student, was now a financial lawyer and doing very well for himself. I almost regretted letting him go, because wouldn’t it be nice to marry a lawyer (which was the original plan)?

But why go to all the trouble of finding and marrying a lawyer? Why not just become one myself? I’ve always been a big fan of the DIY ethos. And so I looked up the 2 law schools in Singapore and to my delight found that they explicitly welcomed mid-career changers into law.

Unfortunately, I found this out only after applications had closed for AY 2013/2014, necessitating a wait of nearly 1 year for the next application window.

Nevertheless, February 2014 rolled around and my supervisors wrote me testimonials, all of which secured me a place on the SMU JD programme shortlist. (NUS did not shortlist me.)

At this point, I was still ambivalent, given the worrying pronouncements from MinLaw about the glut of law graduates, and the attrition rate from the profession. All the same, I was shortlisted, and rolled up to SMU one Saturday morning to do the test and interview.

I still remember the article we had to summarise (it was about wearable fitness trackers) and the hypothetical case (texting while driving). The interview went well. Less than 2 weeks later, the email came in while I was at home, and I stared at the laptop screen in shock for a while. I was accepted.

Unfortunately, in the time between the application and the offer, family matters occurred which made me less certain of this path. Faced with 3 (or more, if you include the training period) years of no income, and a possibility of becoming a huge burden on my family, I wrote to SMU to request a deferment.

They could not hold my place, the best they could do was to guarantee me a place on next year’s shortlist. I gave up my spot and decided, for the time being, to focus on my career, in case I didn’t make it in the following year.