As the pandemic hits us for the fourth time in a row, it's okay not to be okay. But as law students are we ready to turn on a dime in our lives?

Final year at Law College in general is seriously hard enough, but Covid-19 has made things worse. 

January 2020, I could not imagine then that my final year at Law College would be like what it has turned into a year and half later, right now. The pandemic has hit very hard on almost everyone, and law students are not an exception. The nature of this new reality is slowly dawning upon our career prospects as law students. The effect the pandemic has left on us is enormous in terms of our academic, career prospects and emotional wellbeing, and admittedly, crossing these hard times certainly necessitates plowing through some unpaved territories. 

With covid-19 disrupting our academic life and life in general, it has closed doors for or made impossible most of the things we used to do during the pre-covid times. But there should also be opportunities created out of this pandemic situation, for instance technology has embraced our lives than ever before. Why don't we see this new normalcy as a dark cloud with a silver lining? I believe doors closing and ones opening are two sides of the same coin. Therefore we should be determined to continue our life doing the things we used to do and we should be doing, but not in the same traditional way we used to do things, but with the support of technology we must resolve to find technological solutions to the kind of issues we are facing at this moment. It is not rocket science for anyone to understand that there'll come a time sooner or later when everything will be done with the support of technology. It is going to happen gradually though. But if as individuals we take the initiative right now to push our lives forward with the support of technological solutions, things will certainly start to happen fast for us .Thus adapting to changes and being motivated would be the game changer here. True, that's more demanding! But that's where the solution to many problems lies.

As I am turning 25 this year like most of my colleagues, I hate to admit that I'm confused seeing myself as a jobless youth, being unable to get the kinks worked out. That is the dark reality everybody must be going through in the back of their minds right now. I have come to a realization in life that you cannot completely rely one single plan in life. That's not how it works in this pandemic age. You have to have alternatives in life. If plan A doesn't work out well for you then you have to have a plan B at your disposal or create one. It's more about soul-searching identifying the hidden strengths of yours and making them work for you. That can't happen in a day, a week or in a month. It demands patience and of course it is going to take some time. And I've been working on it and thinking over what might work for me for quite a long time. And I have barely found workable answers yet. But I'm happy to tell you I haven't given up, still searching for who I am and what I am capable of as a law student. Taking on the challenge of improving your soft skills and making efforts to deliver something unique blending your skills, creativity and knowledge as a student should not disappoint us in the long term. If pandemic is going to stay as it is, finding workable options for your work-life will be much more useful. Because it is the life skills that are going to take us far, not the paper qualifications. In this pandemic age tech skills are going to reward you more. Honestly I'm starting to lose hope in the somewhat old mindset of ours that merely passing an examination with colors is going to take us to heights in our careers. And usually things don't seem to go the way we plan them to happen for us, and that is basically life. But complaining doesn't take us anywhere, now  I have come to a realization that adaptability and flexibility will be the tool that will help us move on from difficult situations like this and grow. 

When reflecting on the workload we had to carry during the pre-covid first two years at College, learning on a virtual platform like Teams and the availability of pre-recorded lessons on Stream comparatively made the final year course a less of a burden for us. This time final year was far from being the norm; the general belief that final year is far too difficult to get through has changed to a greater extent with the entire course moved online. But every rose has its thorn; the lack of interaction was the biggest disruption for many, particularly this was a big issue for the lecturers. But I was quite impressed to see how the lecturers adapted themselves to virtual platforms as time went on. However, to be honest, the lack of interaction wasn't an issue at all to a passive student like myself. It was all one way communication the entire time. And personally I preferred it being that way. Though remote learning carries with it a heap of advantages, the two consecutive postponements in conducting the final exam have dragged our academic success down to zero and made the final year at college a bit of a hopeless one. But given the situation we are faced with as a country, the postponement was inevitable. Nevertheless I believe postponement has only aggravated the situation students are faced on an individual level, with their academic life being brought to a complete standstill. 

Going to pre-covid times, the freedom we had to explore many different career options within and beyond the legal profession and experience the work life that was to come soon after the final exams are over, are not existent anymore. It has just faded into history. As I am currently half way through the final year exam with two more papers to go, having prepared for the exam for over one and half years, I hate to tell you I'm not seeing an end of it, and seemingly not for another few months if we will not be offered an alternative. Yes, I'm quite impressed with the final year course for the year 2020 which was more or less a hybrid set-up, with almost the entire curriculum moved online while examinations being held onsite. But conducting a pen-paper examination during a pandemic of this scale has proved challenging, time- lagging and nearly impossible in my experience, creating a myriad of issues to address. 

Having had a long, tedious and seemingly never-ending final year in college is in reality a wake up call to many. And making things look more frightening, the freedom then available for legal apprentices to get an insight into the legal practice alongside gaining legal and professional skills in a real work environment, is not fully available anymore owing to the pandemic situation in the country. Even after getting results will we be able to fully experience and make most of our six months apprenticeship? And a similar set of questions are echoing in my head right now; should we just wait for the pandemic to be over to start our careers? Will the pandemic ever go away?, shouldn't we just be brave enough to go explore job opportunities and go on about life like there is no covid, and shouldn't we just consider online internships and try other possible work-from-home job opportunities?

Sometimes doors open when you don't expect them to open before you. Of course all the comfort zones are closed right now; and new unfamiliar ones are beginning to emerge. The new normalcy has also forced us to embrace an array of virtual opportunities being created, which we have no clue about. So it is okay to be not okay and feel confused about what is best for you at this moment. But undoubtedly, being motivated to adapt to a new life is what might keep us going and help us move forward in life at this juncture. We must explore who we are and what we're capable of and stop worrying and being anxious about what future might hold for us. Stay motivated. Try out new things. Gain new skills and enhance your skills. Try adopting a more sustainable lifestyle; it could be your academic life or work life or life in general. If you feel like you want to do an internship then look for one online. If you're good at researching then make time for making research papers. If you are an avid reader, consider enhancing your knowledge on the subjects you are going to major in the future. Even if you are not a good reader then make reading a habit, none of us are not late to do anything in life. If you're into fitness follow your fitness passions, if you can run then run, if you can write then write, if you're good at learning languages then learn a language, if you are good at public speaking then create an audience for you. Literally start following your passions without really stressing yourselves out about exams. This is the mantra that helps me stay positive in this age of uncertainty. No matter how low we as a students community feel right now, let's focus more on our emotional wellbeing by cultivating positivism in our lives, and make this time a golden opportunity for us to gain soft skills we'll be needing for our careers to thrive one day.

Please share your thoughts and comments below, and feel free to share your experiences and possible solutions you may have come up with to overcome the confusions being created in the law students community owing to the pandemic.