My Journey to the New York Bar: The Slight Hiccup at the Beginning

Once I had enrolled onto the 4 month Bar Review Course and received the course materials and books through the post, I was excited to officially start my journey to becoming a New York Attorney. 

I had more or less organised my time which was to work 30 hours a week (Monday to Thursday) and dedicate Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays to review the pre-recorded lectures and work through the study plan provided by Bar Bri International. I was fortunate that my managers at work were flexible and allowed me to cut my hours down and not work on Fridays. 

The course started on Friday 4th of March at 6.30pm and I was so ready for it....until I started to feel unwell and experience chest pains. During the day, I felt so bad I had to go to the walk-in health centre to get checked out and ended up spending a few hours in the waiting room, waiting to be checked out. I was told I had strained a muscle near my chest that's why I was in pain and I needed to avoid movement for a few days. I didn't leave the medical centre until after 8pm and on my way home I found a very drunk lady on the street with vomit all over and in need of help. As we called for an ambulance she stood up and walked into the middle of the road and laid flat on the floor to sleep! This caused a fleet of cars to line up behind her because she was blocking a very busy road and me and 3 other passers by kept trying to get her off the floor but she wouldn't budge! One of drivers came out to see what was happening and was surprised to find out that that the lady was her neighbour! She managed to get her up and take her home! I'm glad she got home safely. An eventful day!

Going back...this was not the start I planned and I had to play catch up with the few days I missed to rest. I also had a lot of adjusting to do, becoming a student again and juggling work and knew I had to put aside things that were not a priority, to invest more time into my studies. 

One of the first things I did was contact those closest to me to explain to them that for the coming months, I would not be as available to do things, meet up and even socialise as I usually was because I would be concentrating on my studies. I asked them to be considerate and to bear with me. It helped so that those around me wouldn't expect too much from me! 

Choosing the home program was ideal for me because of my work schedule and distance from London...but it also feel somewhat lonely because I would be doing this alone, without anyone to consult or feedback too (apart from the tutors). This is what I thought until I received an email from one of the course leaders....