Pathways

My apologies for not blogging much lately, does anyone even read this space? Lol. My writing's a little rusty as well due to the long "vacation".

I have so many things to blog about (aka my trip to Wrexham, Chester and Manchester, Food etc) But today, I'm going to blog about pathways and also because I haven't uploaded any of my pictures onto my computer (which usually takes forever because I am lazy not gonna lie haha)

It's been 2 and a half months since I've started my Masters program. Compared to most of my ex coursemates and friends, they have chosen the BPTC route which would lead them to become lawyers later on in the future or maybe not. As for me, I chose the Masters pathway in which I won't be able to practice as a lawyer in the future (if I do choose to practice, I would have to apply for the BPTC or go back home and do the CLP).

Most people would go for Masters in Law (LLM) but I know a few who did not and I'm one of them. I went for the MSc program which means Masters in Social Sciences.

Before deciding to apply for my masters, I was actually stuck in between applying for the BPTC and not applying for it. I eventually made my decision and not apply for the BPTC since I knew that my interest was not to pursue the law path anymore.

I weighed in my options and since it was Masters, I could apply for whatever I wanted (except for science HAHAH pls). I met up with lecturers from various fields - criminology, history etc and I also considered journalism. I eventually chose criminology since my interest in it was always there since A levels. I was sad to let history go but I had to do what I had to do, it was not easy trust me.

I applied to a few universities including London to which I did not have any high hopes for since my second year results weren't all that great. Anyhoo, all of the universities that I applied for replied me!

Now, I was in dilemma as to which university I should go to - I've always wanted to study in London (Altho i hated the idea of studying there at first but I got used to the London lifestyle after going down many times) and there was another thought of me staying in Cardiff once more because it's relatively cheaper. I've gotten opinions and thoughts from everywhere. Long story short, I chose to stay in Cardiff.

My parents were fine with whatever university I choose, but I wouldn't want to put the burden of expenses on my parents when the London expenses are too high.

Skipping all the miscellaneous part of the story such as visa-making, debating if I should redo my TB test (and FYI, you do not need to redo your TB test unless you've left the UK for more than 6 months).

Once I've settled down in Cardiff, I attended orientation day (omg, Sofea attending orientation day). It's been awhile since I've attended any orientation program, I even skipped my undergrad orientation program when I arrived in the UK.

It was obviously nerve-wrecking for me because I didn't know anyone there unlike my undergrad years. I was separated into my program group and realized that there were only 8 people in my course!! (As to which one left and one joined so it went up to 9 then went back down to 8 lol).

The subjects are really different compared to law as we all focus on the overall sociological/criminologist view on research and childhood. We get to participate more in class and I get to share more about my culture with the rest of the class. So far so good. Let's just say I've enjoyed my classes more than my law classes (unless it was HELP first year).

So anyway, back to the main topic of pathways.

What I'm trying to point out here is, if you don't know what you want to do in the future. It's perfectly fine. Take your time to think of what you want and if you already have something in mind and you're set to do it, go ahead. Don't follow the crowd because you feel the need to, but follow what you want. I'm not saying that you can't take the law route, it's perfectly fine if that's what you want. You can always pursue something else in the future after practising as a lawyer. I know a few people who aren't pursuing law after obtaining a law degree, one is even doing Masters in Music at the moment!

In my case, I already knew that the Bar life wasn't for me so I didn't bother applying for it. I was just stuck on what I wanted to do for my Masters and here I am! Pursuing a Masters in Criminology.

I won't deny that I was afraid when it came to pursuing a new course but the excitement itself was strong enough to cover my fear and go for it. Plus! I am pursuing other activities such as volunteer work (although the process of it is highly irritable with the DBS checks and so on).

If you need to do more research, feel free to do so. Weigh out the pros and cons, discuss with your parents, friends, lecturers and counselors. However, the most important thing is, listen to what you want.

Take your time. It's never too late for anything.

That being said, I end this post with a picture of the street of SOHO while I was waiting for... actually I don't remember. I think I was just walking and I thought that it was a nice place to take a picture so snap snap it is.




Signing Off.