Friday 4 May 2012

Too Much Focus

To avoid becoming one of those bloggers who gives daily 2 paragraph updates about the food I've eaten/'experienced' that day, I'll try and keep on developing new neuroses/ privileged girl problems to b*tch about. Today's problem revolves around the direction of the rest of my life. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people in the unfortunate position of 'about to graduate but have no direction in life', no no noooo. If anything, I've got too much direction, but have recently discovered I don't have enough/ the right qualifications to fulfil these 'directions'.

Lemme break it down for ya. To avoid confusing myself/ exploding, I've decided to apply for two routes. There is The Law Route and there this The Stanford Route. Yes, both absolutely ridiculously competitive at the best of times [which is not right now] and both requiring dedication on a level never before witnessed by one such as myself. I'm talking, no video games for the next 3 years sort of dedication.

The Law Route involves applying to about 15 different City Law firms hoping that one of them will give me a training contract, pay for my law conversion and Legal Practice Course, hire me for at least two years, and give me a starting salary of roughly 35 grand. No, I don't think that's unrealistic. Oh wait, unrealistic for me? Oh yeah, definitely. I don't do 'extra curriculars' [speaking elvish does not, apparently, count], I'm not on-track for a 1st from Oxbridge [they say '2.1 from anywhere, but let's get real for a moment] and as amazing as my mother thinks I am, convincing Freshfields that I've wanted to do law since I was 5 and 1/2 may not be as straightforward as all that, even if I tell them in rap.

Ahhh Stanford. Set in the beautiful land of California, somewhere close to San Francisco, it's a dream and a half away. The application process itself won't be too bad I think - it's mainly just long-winded, probably to weed out the half-hearted folk. But, it is expensive. But American Universities have that Scholarship thing going on, I hear you clamour. Correct, but this is also another long-winded and infinitely more confusing process, the best ones being applied to by people who already have 1sts from Oxbridge [and occasionally UCL]. I think that will just take time though. I'm more worried about the fact that everyone seems super keen for you to have done stuff outside of your study, even though when you start working for them, you won't have time to do anything but what they want from you.

It's ok though, I've got a plan. This plan, however, means that if you're a good friend of mine, or even live in Edinburgh, you're not going to see or hear from me for literally 1 year, starting in August. I can give my flatmates 4 hours a week, tops. Better make the most of those contact hours kids. Anyway, the plan is to, whilst aiming for a '1st' [hey, you gotta start somewhere] in Chinese, to also:
  • take my HSK level 6 [highest level]
  • continue with Calligraphy [to show I'm cool and shi']
  • continue teaching myself Japanese on the side [just...don't]
  • Volunteer for at least an hour a week
  • join some sort of society [probably a generic one full of dickheads like Lawsoc or Debatesoc, hoping to rope someone into that one with me..................Sarah]
  • not die.


Hahahaha. Yeah I know. I'd like to be buried with my Wii please.

Xx

7 comments:

  1. Starting your first sentence with a grammatical error. Not cool.

    And I also feel your pain and am considering the Law route. Goodbye, social life.

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  2. Dear Anon,
    I'm so glad that I'm not the one who mentioned it. Phew!

    However, moaning about the lack of a social life in the current economic climate, for a job that would pay you over £30k to train, is a bit of a "privileged person" problem.

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  3. Haha, good point. "Privileged people" get the worst lot in life, don't they? :P

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  4. hey! I've been reading your blog after i stumbled upon it on the student room looking for some good year abroad blogs! it's really interesting, so would you not be looking to use your chinese actively in a job? or was this more a degree you studied because you enjoyed it and didn't exactly want a career using chinese. Just curious :)

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    Replies
    1. Hi,
      I'd want to use my Chinese eventually: many law programs offer seats abroad, and most of the city firms have offices in Beijing and Shanghai and prefer people who can speak the language. Also, for Stanford I would be applying for their East Asian Department to major in Chinese and minor in Japanese, so definite language use there!

      I don't think I want my career to focus on my language skills, but I'm hoping said skills will help me with my career, if you get what I mean. But, if my ability to speak Chinese does help me get a job, I guess I will have to use it! I hope that was a real answer lol

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  5. Oh very interesting! so you would be going to stanford to do another undergraduate degree? best of luck :)

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    Replies
    1. No, I would be doing a Master's. I don't think I could go through another undergraduate!

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