Humans of Sydney Law

Home
Australia
Sydney, NSW
Humans of Sydney Law

One law school. Countless stories. Our hope is that these diverse stories inspire, challenge and cha It’s a universal fact that law school is not easy.

It’s a grind and the people that we befriend, associate with and come to know make this journey worth it. Welcome to Humans of Law School. We simply want to shine a light on you, your highs and lows. We’re going to cover everything from diversity in the law, mental health, competitions, to external interests. This is a constructive medium and it belongs to all of us. Settling into uni is not easy and we hope this page will break down stereotypes and humanise your experience whilst giving you an outlet to express your views in a safe online space, anonymously if you so choose. We don’t believe that anyone can be excluded based on ethnicity, heritage, sexuality, passions, their age or their dreams. We’re privileged to be able to talk to so many interesting and diverse people every single day and it only makes sense we give credit here with stories in their free form. Our hope is that these stories inspire, challenge and change the way you think. It’s a grand synthesis but with a law school as unique as ours and people as passionate as those in our tutorials and lectures, we’re certain it can be done. Love,
The HOSL team.

29/12/2017

With the final hours of 2017 fast approaching, we'd like to take a moment to thank you all for your support throughout these past 9 months :)

Ever since starting up in March, we sought to create a safe community space that would help tackle the mental health issues tied with studying Law, such as how 46.9% of law students have experienced depression, and how 67.9% personally know someone who has (Brain & Mind Research Institute 2009).

In seeking out stories of humanity, we have been constantly taken aback by the inspiring, witty and ever insightful stories in each and everyone of us, as law students but also as so much more - as thinkers, poets, scientists and dreamers.

We wouldn't be here without each and every one of our unique life experiences.

As always, please stay tuned - we hope to hear more stories from you all, and we have many more stories to share!

From the team, we wish you a 🎉 Happy New Year 🎉 and a great 2018 to come.

To another year of celebrating the diversity of being human,

- The Humans of Sydney Law Team

25/10/2017

I think everyone takes law too seriously. Law isn't life. Keep your hobbies. Do what makes you happy.

12/10/2017

Student life is often an intellectual horror film.

Initially my path was unsettled and directionless, littered with the discursive reality of work, co-curriculars and the search for life outside of a never-ending assessment cycle. I wanted to find my calling and my place as a JD student. But I didn't need the patience of Job to discover it.

When I was about 9 years old, I became infatuated with international affairs. My household was a distinctly Afghan one. The politics of the Near-East in the aftermath of 9/11 and the Iraq War were everyday family conversation points. I became immersed within, then possessed by this environment. I read books, watched documentaries and contributed in my fair share of heated family debates.

That's why my legal studies today are geared towards international law. At least, that's why I've tried to ricochet everywhere. During the Christmas holidays of 2015/2016, I ventured out to conflict zones in the Middle-East’s Holy Land. Fascinated by the complex circumstances, I spent over a month traversing ancient cities, exploring UN Refugee camps, teaching English and working on human rights and development projects.

Uni can feel like a war of attrition, hypercompetitive at times, a meandering path with no definitive end. But I take comfort knowing that every person's ultimate calling lies within them and things come together, perhaps not immediately, but inevitably.

15/09/2017

The first thing I ever really loved was reading.

At four and five, you wouldn't see me without a book. And then that grew to Latin, and the classics- for the first time I'd found something that was entirely my own, a hidden world of hexameters that opened itself to the past.

From there, I learnt French and eventually went on exchange to Paris. And there's something about it that I won't ever be able to express in words- something about sitting in the Richelieu wing of the Louvre on a Wednesday night when all but the artists have left. Something about standing in the Panthéon before the tombs of Hugo, Voltaire and Zola that seems to suspend time.

In law school I've realised how easy it is to feel detached- I'm hovering between my years of success as a big fish in a small pond, and some sort of dreamy reverie in the future that hasn't shaped itself yet.

With more and more legal study, I'm afraid that I'll move further and further away from what I like- not that there's a place for poetry in the corporate world anyway. I'm getting used to it, but do I really want to?

Amidst all the chaotic routine I've at least come to love the small things- the dreamy electric part in my favourite song, snippets of T.S. Eliot, and this one cat with white socks that hangs around my driveway at night.

08/09/2017

Hear me out, but law students are kind of like cats.

We like to pretend to be super independent, we scratch and batter at unnecessary things and we all have multiple lives. For one, in USYD anyway, we all have two degrees: two lives. Everyone else has something else on the side too: some kind of passion, some kind of story. For me, I guess I’m a word-guzzling law student by choice, a labcoat-swathed science kid by nature, and I’m a committee member of the university’s Malaysian society SUAMS: a proud Malaysian by heart.

Why I joined was simple: I like learning things by talking to people, and I wanted (yes in the lame, clichéd way) to make a difference. Joining SUAMS gave me exactly that: in huge, persistent spoonfuls like a mother feeding a stubborn child. My society work kept me busy all the time, but also taught me everything. From the bizarre, like how to make event décor for less than 10 dollars and where to outsource the cheapest Indian snacks; to the exciting, like figuring out that companies and sponsors are just like you and me, or watching tiny, vaguely-shaped seeds of an idea from your mind fight into a full-fledged initiative that actually makes some kind of mark in someone’s life. Or the simple: like kindness, and gratitude, and tolerance, and how every single person has a story of their own.

30/08/2017

A friend recently told me “The only thing law students do is read”.

It wasn’t malicious, or completely serious, but it reflected a reality law students are so familiar with. I never viewed myself as an avid reader growing up. In high school, I often only read the mandatory texts in English class. Actually, sometimes I didn’t even read those books. It was easy to rationalise as a mere matter of saving time, preferring the movie over the book (bad choice always).

But in law school, you can’t escape your readings. And luckily for me, I didn’t.
Semester after semester, turning the pages of history and reading how each plaintiff reached their position opened a window into stories that led me to my position. I could reflect on the books and people who inspired my late-grandfather with the courage to start his own business - the same ‘crime’ that the Chinese Communist government sent him to a labour camp for. My parents risked everything and came to Australia because of its hope and beauty - they read that in a geography book.

In Europe, I met a Syrian refugee who fled his home. He was an English teacher. When conflict arrived, he left all his books and fled with family. I discovered his passions, heartbreaks and his dream to teach English in Europe. Studying Frankenstein for class at the time, I couldn’t think of anything more appropriate than giving him my copy to start his new book collection. I wrote a message in the front cover for him before I left.

Reading represents the stories that need to be told and cherished, which build us and break us. I still forget to do my readings and struggle with Shakespeare. But I'm proud of reading, because that’s how we remember the stories that define us all.

25/08/2017

I finished Law School last year. I miss the freedom of structuring your own day and coming and going as you please. But that’s also a curse in a way. If you’re like me, you sometimes find it hard to be self-disciplined and astute enough to prioritise completely different demands from varying quarters like study, student activities, work and everything else. Working full-time is simpler. It’s easier to prioritise and mentally organise things because all my work is of the same kind.

There’s always been an element of rivalry at Law School. But the times when there was the most competition – during clerkship application season, right before exams – were also the times of highest solidarity among students. I really think there’s something to be said about the way a common challenge helps bring people together. The sense of all being in the same boat is unifying. People often say that law students and lawyers put immense pressure on themselves. Perhaps internalising the idea that everyone else is being overly competitive and individualistic is a part of that.

If all else fails, nothing seems to bring people closer together than bemoaning the appalling state of the Law School toilets.

07/08/2017

I'm really very special

I swear I really am.
Let me prove it to you
In a few iambs.

I went to this and that school
I live with dosh in pocket
I race around the law school
Being so important -

Important due to title!
Titles are so much fun
When you're oh so special.
I'm secretly scared, you see,
That I am really boring -
So I compensate
By promising
I'm good at everything.

But now I've come to realise
I don't need to be
That special person
Who changes what we see.
Instead I think I'll be
A very normal human being
Doing just her little bit
To help another person.

I hope my fellow students
who feel they need to be something other than normal
can see as clear as me -
mundanity is a gift
If you use it wisely.

31/07/2017

After I left school in China I came to Australia for a gap year and worked at an organic farm.

Back then I had no idea where I’d end up for university. In a fine weekend afternoon, I visited Sydney University and was immediately attracted by the law library. Its fascinating size and the vibe of wonder made me return to Sydney Law as a full-time international student in July 2015.

The first-year law camp was no doubt the highlight of my freshman year experience. However, for international students such as myself, it could also be socially intimidating. Surrounded by peers who felt totally at ease making new friends, I found it hard to start a conversation or find interests in common – cultural shock kicked in. I did not know anyone in the cohort (or anyone in the southern hemisphere). I had difficulties understanding their Aussie English, particularly the punch lines that kept the cohort entertained. Suddenly I thought the music was too loud, beers too bitter and campsite too distant from reality. I lay on the grass and started missing home.

From retrospect, I still appreciate the first-year law camp not only because it forced me into opening myself to others, which has now become much less painful, but also because of the friendships forged - one of which is probably one of my best. Life can get hard at law school – hard enough to make you feel as if the whole world is against you. At such moments, advisors and mentors are much needed for students dislocated from home and having difficulties integrating into the new community, which happens to be an academically competitive one.

23/06/2017

“I just don’t feel the need to talk about my sexuality.” That’s what I usually say.

I suppose everyone comes to terms with their sexuality differently. I didn't 'come out' until I was well into my first year of law school, and even then it was only to a very select group of people. In fact, I still have people, who I've known for years, come up to me and say "I had no idea you were gay", not in a malicious way, but out of genuine surprise.

I'd say that I'm unassumingly gay; unassuming in the sense that I don't exhibit many of those idiosyncrasies that are often and cruelly ascribed to gay people. I wouldn't say that I'm a repressed homosexual. I like men, it's who I am, and it's something that I've always lived with. It's something that I'm finally at peace with and law school has been incredibly helpful in that regard. In coming out, I've never faced any hostility. I've received endless love, support and warmth from friends and peers alike; it's all very touching.

But, to me, being gay is such a non-issue. It plays but a small part in my life. So no, I wouldn't say that I feel any particular sense of pride in being gay. But looking at that flag, I do feel a sense of pride. I'm extremely grateful and proud of those who've come before me and fought for my right to sit here and talk freely about my sexuality. I'm proud that I'm at an institution that not only tolerates my right to love, but is proactive in changing how people view LGBT people, because at the end of the day we're people too.

To those who are coming to law school and are still "in the closet", I haven't really much to say. I came out at my own pace and on my own terms, and I've no regrets. Take from that what you will.

11/06/2017

Rap is catharsis.

Throughout primary and high school, I felt like a nobody. My parents immigrated to Australia in the early 90s. They finally saved up enough money to buy a corner-store on the Beaches and raised me in the little apartment that was attached to it. I think my childhood and early teenage years can only be characterised as lonely. I don’t want to elaborate on how I was bullied and excluded because I looked different and couldn’t speak English; this isn’t a self-pitying sob story.

But consequently, it did make it difficult for me to make friends or talk to the girl that I liked. I saw Eminem’s “Just Lose It” music video before Saturday morning cartoons when I was 9. I downloaded it onto my iPod Mini and listened to it on repeat for weeks. My mate, Tom, learnt how to beatbox sometime later and I started freestyling over it during recess and lunch. I started writing comedic rap, inspired by Weird Al and Flight of the Conchords.

Eventually, I saved up enough money to get a proper mic, and started posting regularly onto Soundcloud and YouTube. When I was 16, I won a school talent show for this rap I wrote called “Out of My League”. People were liking it on Facebook and YouTube and downloading it off Soundcloud. It made me realise that perhaps, I was actually good at something I also enjoyed doing.

I expressed this realisation to my parents who calmly, but sternly told me that my studies should always be first; that my career aspirations should be realistic. Concurrently, I played piano from ages 4 to 16. So when Rakim said in an interview that if instrumental music can paint an imagery and make you feel an emotion without any words whatsoever, then rappers should be able to do that, if not more, with words and language at our disposal.

Trying to balance law school and music has been difficult and, I foresee, to only get harder from here. Nonetheless, my plan is to keep my head down; writing and recording. Perhaps, somewhere down the line, I’d get an opportunity to turn, what has been a mere passion for the last few years of my life into something more.

03/06/2017

I'm about to finish my first semester of engineering/law. The course is insanely intense as it requires me to run half marathons across campus from PNR to Wallace. People think I am crazy for doing it, but I just tell them 'six years, six figures.'

Address

Sydney Law School, Level 3, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Ave
Sydney, NSW
2006

Website

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc0QF42KwonhFIaJ_vILKQ07ivVKrHGkj65kXR2WPfQ5S84mw/viewform

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Humans of Sydney Law posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Practice

Send a message to Humans of Sydney Law:

Shortcuts

Want your practice to be the top-listed Clinic in Sydney?