One B

A friend of mine from the Supreme Court was regaling me with tales of a "legendary Falcon Crest" block in UP Law, when in the midst of her storytelling I slowly realized the block she was talking about was my own! As I didn't watch this American soap, I checked the plot online and found little in common between the Machiavellian scheming of its characters and the tempestuous relationships in our class. Nonetheless, we did create our own share of drama- just enough to make life in law school more interesting.

We were freshmen when the above picture with our adviser, Prof. Muyot, was taken. I was class president then, but too busy trying to balance reading cases and writing for the campus paper: I was oftentimes the last to find out about the latest class dispute or entanglement, except when I myself was involved in it!

Prof. Muyot helped provide balance and stability to our class of anarchy, One B. He encouraged us to show up for our parties... and stay beyond 9 PM even if we had a backlog of readings. He reminded us that, for better or worse, we would be stuck with each other for many years, so that we might as well make the best of it. And he gave us a vision of ourselves as future leaders of the country.

Our class has had two reunions the past month- it's a jubilee year for us, and people are making a special effort to reconnect. What's wonderful is how we know each other- both our flaws and strengths- because of the pressure-cooker experience that was law school. While my most intense relationships probably happened outside our block- or even our College- the friendships I made in our block are definitely among the most resilient and longest-lasting.