Lunch With A Valedictorian

She smiles at me as I slide into the seat in front of her. She shifts in her seat, adjusts the table and prepares to dig into the rice and beef stew from the cafeteria.

Though she’s dressed in a power suit, one wouldn’t think she was a valedictorian. One wouldn’t have thought there was anything extraordinary about her, except perhaps for that pretty and very friendly smile on her face.

Her name is Patricia Ngo Chua. People call her Tracy. And she is the Class Valedictorian for the Ateneo School of Law, Batch 2007.

Nothing special? Please.

Not only was she class valedictorian, but she also got best thesis, was a member of the Ateneo Law Journal and part of the Jessup Team representing the Philippines in 2005. She also received the St. Thomas More award, which is the highest award given to an Ateneo Law graduate. I’d say she was something special, yes sir.

I ask her about all her achievements, and she shrugs, as if to say it wasn’t much. She seems a bit shy to answer questions about all her accomplishments in law school. She takes another bite of her food, as though trying to change the topic.

Law school is a hard place to be in. It demands a lot, and takes up nearly every spare moment of your time. It was a torture chamber for many students. But looking at Tracy, one wouldn’t think she suffered much while there. If anything, she seemed to thrive.

But I do know that she had to go through all kinds of pain while there. In her first year of law school, her grandfather, whom she was very close to, died just before her midterm exams week. A twinge of sadness passes through her face as she tells the story. But it disappears quickly. She did ok during those exams, she says. I happen to know however, that she was on the Dean’s List for that semester.

Getting through hardship and pain isn’t new for law students. But few, if any students do as well as she does, even without the many obstacles Tracy in particular had to go through.

Tracy tries to draw me into a conversation on comic books. She tells me that she read comic books all the time when she was in law school. I look at her in an obviously unbelieving manner. She flashes me another smile.

Here is proof positive that being in Law School doesn’t mean that you have no life. Or that you have to be a nerd. Or a loser.

Tracy tells me about the help she had to get through law school. Her family, her friends, her uncles and aunts. Her grandfather. Her mom in particular.

“If everyone had a mom like mine, I think everyone could be a valedictorian,” she says in what was probably the only time she acknowledged her position in her batch.

Our food is nearly gone, and it’s almost time to go.

As we get up to leave, I ask her where she will be going next. “Oh, over to the book store,” she tells me.

Ah. Intellectual stimulation, I think. She must really like to read.

“There are some new graphic novels and comics there,” she says in passing.

Oh.

What a girl.

And as she leaves, I catch one more glimpse of that happy smile on her face. If only all valedictorians were like her. Heck, if only all lawyers and law students were like her, maybe then the legal profession wouldn’t be getting such a bad rap.

Look out world. Tracy is coming. And she probably knows the law better than most of you do.

Go Tracy Go.