It's been a century ey?
I trust you are having yourself one hell of a weekend. Let’s
take it up a notch as I tell you about my Moot Court experience from
hell. I guarantee a few laughs if dark comedy is your cup of tea, because this,
this was a dark experience.
Quick explanation on my one week or so hiatus, it all came
down to Thursday 11th June midday. All Africa Moot Court internal
rounds. There were hiccups along the way, major
and minor ones at that. These were probable warning signs, “Don’t do
it!” that’s just paranoia talking. Yeah, it wasn’t.
I would like to tell you about the moments that led up to
the most treacherous five minutes of my life, but that would postpone my embarrassment
which you are probably aching to know by now.
My name just had to be the first on that list. I would be
arguing the first issue, only problem is I was prepared for the third and
fourth. In fact I was beyond prepared. The relevant law was on my finger tips,
the relevant articles in the African Charter were mastered, international
declarations and resolutions were in the bag, I had historical facts up my
sleeve, Heck! I even had a quote that was for sure going to blow the judges
away. My argument for luck of a better term was going to be …fire.
The only thing “fire” about my little situation because it
was definitely no argument was how I crushed and burned, into ashes. My
introduction was pathetic, let’s just keep in mind that the term pathetic in
this situation is mild. There was no strong start, in fact there was nothing strong about those five
minutes, don’t keep your hopes up, don’t even have your fingers crossed.
Remembering the whole ordeal is painfully embarrassing. The
memory sends me into few bouts of shortness of breath, but writing is risky
business and my readers are worth the risk.
Quoting an article from the African Charter sent me on a
downward spiral and the beginning of the end could not have been clearer. At that moment I felt my eyes well
up, yup the water works were on the brink of being turned on and it had nothing
to do with the case Blyth v Birmington Waterworks that I would have cited.
Besides being on the verge of letting my emotions get the utmost best of me, my
temperature either dropped or rose maybe even both. All I know is if I was a
couple of shades lighter, I would have probably turned berry red. All the
while, I had goose bumps all over me, the hairs at the back of my neck were
doing over time standing at attention and my hands were cold, ice cold.
All the while questions were coming at me left right and
centre. You know how questions usually have answers, my mind changed it up and
instead of answers, blank stares were the name of the game. It gets worse the
language of the court also known as the fancy language used among those in the
legal fraternity went out of the window. Everything and anything I said
warranted a question, it is at these points that I should have just shut up.
Disappointing yourself is one thing , disappointing yourself
in front of a good number of people is another. My situation was the latter.
The icing on the cake, no? My five minutes were up and so was my life as I know
it.
When I went back to my seat after that terrifying ,
humiliating, self-esteem, depriving, grueling experience the first thing I
thought, I kid you not was, “Well won’t this make for an epic read.” I also
thought of wimpering in the corner or finding a hole to bury myself in as I
waited for my impending death. The long walk home would be far from therapeutic
if anything it would amplify my fail not to mention how the weather was an
accurate reflection of my exact sentiments; glum, gloom, grey, cold and lonely.
For the past few days I have just wallowed in my own pool of
misery reliving the humiliation over and over again. I would like to say that
the world has since come to a standstill as I cope with this traumatic
experience but if you’re still moving, you guessed it, nothing and no one
stopped even for a split second, as Chris
Cooper finely put it in The Company Men.
My weekend is usually laundry, lounging and literature now I
get to throw in looking past this. Feel free to re-read this post if you ever
feel the need to feel better about yourself.
Have a good one!
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