By Micah Marie F. Naadat and Ramon Bautista
The road might be long, but the journey is worth it. Truly, the longest and toughest journeys in life are likewise the most rewarding.
Take it from San Beda University-College of Law’s (SBU-COL) sole excellent 2020/21 bar passer, Atty. Chelsea Eichel Dauz.
Last April 12, after two years of waiting, Atty. Dauz’s childhood dream finally came true—she is now a lawyer. Having harbored that dream since first grade, she was in utter shock and disbelief when her loved ones informed her of the results of the historic #BestBarEver2021_21.
The night before the release of the bar exam results, Atty. Dauz was actually feeling low and has consistently entertained doubts in her mind.
“On the day of the [release] of the bar exam results, I locked myself up in my room and I turned off my phone,” she recalled.
“I told my family and my boyfriend to just knock on my door when the results would come out. Usually, the bar results would come out at 11:30 AM, so at that time, when no one was knocking on my door yet, I thought I didn’t pass.”
But fate was on Atty. Dauz’ side that day.
Not only was she able to overcome one of the toughest exams in the country, she was also among the 14 bar takers who were able to obtain a grade above 90 percent—and the only bar examinee of SBU-COL to do so.
“My immediate reaction when I was told that I was an ‘excellent’ bar passer was, ‘Ah talaga?’ I couldn’t absorb it and it took me a few days before I realized how big of an achievement that was,” Atty. Dauz expressed.
Her road to excellence was not an easy one.
She was a working student in her first three years in law school. She had to balance her time between work and school, so there were days when what she was able to study would not be enough.
“There were so many times that I doubted myself. Minsan, dasal lang talaga,” she said.
Despite such, there were only two instances where she cried in law school: first was after she took her final exams for Criminal Law 1 under Atty. Ryan Mercader and second was when she saw her midterm exam grade for Political Law Review under Atty. Adonis Gabriel.
“For Criminal Law 1 and Political Law Review, akala ko hindi ako makakapasa. Pero nakapasa naman. I did not want to be a disappointing student because those were my favorite subjects,” Atty. Dauz said.
She even openly shared that she failed Negotiable Instruments Law the first time she took the said subject, which incidentally, was not part of the 2020/21 bar exam syllabus.
“My mistake was, at that time, I did not study how he [professor] made his exams, so I failed. But I accepted the fact that I did not try hard enough, so I was okay. I told myself to move on na lang, and that I can still take the subject a second time,” she said.
Due to the COVID-10 pandemic, Atty. Dauz also took the bar exams under extremely uncertain circumstances. Unfortunately, it was a common misconception among people that their batch of bar examinees had plenty of time on their hands because of the numerous delays in the schedule of the exams caused by several reasons ranging from the rise of new COVID-19 variants down to the urgent need to enforce quarantine restrictions.
However, this was not the case for Atty. Dauz and her friends.
“We were affected by the postponements of what was happening around us, and what was happening with the country because we did not know when the situation will be okay. Nung time na ‘yun, sabaw lang kami,” Atty. Dauz shared.
“It also affected our mental health. After the announcement in 2020 that the bar exams will not push through, my friends and I stopped studying for a while. We did not want to get burned out, and it was also important for us when we would ‘peak’ for the exams. Some of my friends worked, while I took some time off,” she added.
Despite the challenges and setbacks, what kept her going was the fact that her dream ever since she was in first grade was already at the palm of her hands. She knew it would only take her a few steps more to reach her childhood dream.
She constantly reminded herself that she did not want to waste all her hard work throughout the years.
For her, this was her time—the only time that she should become a lawyer.
One of Atty. Dauz’ constant inspirations in her life inside and outside law school is her father.
Her father is a litigation lawyer in Lucena City, Quezon, and his work gave Atty. Dauz an early exposure to the practice of law. She wants to focus on the field of litigation like her father because she saw how he was able to help people through his practice.
“Initially, my plan was to join the Office of the Solicitor General. But I saw that my dad needed help here at home, so I joined his firm,” Atty. Dauz said.
At the end of the line, Atty. Dauz’ journey was a spectrum full of inspiration, fueled by grit and sustained by determination.
She advised law students not to pressure themselves, and instead of fearing failure, they should train themselves to think of what is good for them: To focus on the positive, instead of the negative.
Having now fulfilled her dream of becoming a lawyer and being an unstoppable force to reckon with, there is no doubt that this Bedan lawyer from Quezon will accomplish bigger things in the near future. After all, excellence has no limits.
THE BARRISTER 