Thursday, August 30, 2012

1st VCF session

It was 12.45pm, and yet, there i was, all alone at the table by the corriodor adjacent the staircase next to the 'summit'. Hadn't i sent a message to all my group members to come around for cg lunch at 12.30pm? Perhaps i might have been remiss in forgetting to include any information on how i would look like, and they might have backed out after not knowing who they should be approaching at the tables. Or perhaps they had classes during that time period, and I would have done better if I had checked the year 1's schedules. Or perhaps....Well, social conventions confound me. Lunch turned out an affair amongst familiar people - My Co-CGL, Larisa, and my church mates, Darius and Michael.

There were quite a number of new faces at the cell group meeting. It was a rather sizable group, 14 people in all. 4 new year ones, 3 new year twos, and this guy from Germany who was doing his Masters as part of the NYU-NUS tie up programme. After a round of introduction, I decided to kick start the session with an ice-breaker game. I passed round the bag of M and Ms to the members, and each took a packet. Then I instructed them to pour out 5 random M and Ms into their hands. I called out a colour, red, and asked those who had red M and Ms in their hands to share about their hobbies. A year one girl shared about her involvement with an organisation dealing with social causes such as the paralympics. The german guy shared about his hobby in hiking and fishing. Darius shared about his passion in theology, whilst I shared about my interest in Japanese culture. And after that, I called out yellow, and asked those who had yellow M and Ms to share about their favourite movies. I think there was a general lively mood at the ice-breaking session.

The topic of discussion was about how we as Christian law students should approach our study life. We began by watching this comical video of a Singaporean boy in his lower primary school years talking about the pressure that his parents place on him to study hard so as to earn a good living. You can watch the video here. I then asked the group the first question that was in the topic discussion guide - What are some of the beliefs of studying brought out by the video? The general consensus was that Singapore had a very competitve study culture. Sometimes, we study with the anxiety that we do not want to end up at the bottom rung of the school ranking system. I asked the German guy whether there was such a pressure for one to study hard in his home country. He replied that it was quite different from Singapore, and he didn't experience such pressure to study hard during his childhood days. However, he grew up and realized the importance of studying hard if he wants to do well in life. I moved the discussion on to the next question - As a Christian student, what are some challenges to not studying like siao, like the majority culture. One new year two spoked about how it is important to keep a sense of perspective of studying in relation to life and to the Christian faith. A year one talked about how she viewed her efforts in their studies as a way to glorify God.

I then made a statement about how it is easy for Christian students in law school to get carried away by studies and to sacrifice all other commitments, the first ones to go usually being Christian activities like VCF and church cell groups, and I asked how we as Christians should balance our Christian life with our school life. The German guy said that most other students around him are able to cope with many other commitments besides their studies, and if he should have to forgo all other commitments to study, then it suggests that he isn't very effective or efficient with studies. He spoke about a friend of his in the law school in Germany who was a strong Christian and who was deeply involved in Christian ministry and yet made to the upper echelon of the legal service. This allowed him to be a Christian influence to those around him amongst this circle of elites. I get the sentiment from my friends and acquaintances around in law school, and from the group discussion that most people in law school are quite capable and involved in many other commitments apart from their studies. I sometimes tell myself, if they can do it, so can I. But I have been rather apprehensive about taking commitments and have confined my school-term commitments apart from studies to Christian-related activities such as the VCF and my Discipleship group in church. Yet, I find it difficult to keep up with the curriculum of school. I sometimes go to tutorial classes relying on the tutorial answers I got from seniors so that I would be able to say something in case I am picked out by the professor. It amazes me that some of my other school mates who are in heavier commitments seem to have prepared quite well for the class and are able to raise many insightful points during lesson.

I then showed the group another video featuring an English educationalist Sir Ken Robinson who talked about the inadequacies of the current model of the education system. You can watch the video here. Although the talk given by Sir Ken Robinson was in relation to the pre-university education system, I linked its relevance to how despite we as law students have succeeded in the education system that preceded our entering into law school, we are now thrust into another segment of the education system which is more vocation-specific in nature, and how it is possible for some to fall through the cracks at this stage of the education system and not do as well in school as how they used to. I fear that I may be one of them as I did really badly in the examination last semester. I am still struggling with getting a hang of law school.

Larisa shared with the group about how she sometimes find it difficult to trust in God's will and guidance for her study commitments, especially when studies seems so personal an endeavour such that she feels she must study hard on her own accord to do well. She used quite an interesting analogy of her pet dog who would growl defensively at her when it was having its meal, and how she had to wait for her dog to finish its food before she could go give it a hug. Larisa said that in the same way, we sometimes are so caught up with our school work that we reel away from God in order to commit to other studies when all he wants to do is to give us a hug.

I spoke about the carefree days in army and before law schools where there wasn't any studying to do, and how I felt a sense of liberation from all the studying during my army days. Somehow, when I found myself being able to live life without having a care about studies and grades, I experienced a joy in learning and studying for itself. I tried to inject some humour into the session by joking about how my favourite song during my carefree days prior to law school was Party Rock Anthem by the band LMAO which had the iconic line "Everyday I am shuffling", but now, it's "Everyday I am studying" for me instead.

It was quite a fun discussion for me, although I don't know whether the members in my group are bored or feeling disengaged. Larisa and I were doing a disproportionate amount of  talking. I suppose the way the questions are asked in the topical discussion booklet wasn't too engaging in nature, and we could have asked the group members question in a more personal manner that is related to the topic.

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