By process of…Trust.

I know this is long winded, so I will be posting it in two parts, one this week, and one next week.
 

Since around September/October time, when school began prompting me to start applying to university, I have been in a state of uncertainty. Up until June/July of 2011, my plan had been to study English Literature and Spanish, Joint Honours at university. I enjoyed languages and the analysis of literature excited me immensely. Over the summer of 2011 and throughout September I began going to Open Days at universities to find out about their English and Languages departments. On one of these university open days, I ended up missing one of the seminars for English but decided to look on the list to see which other seminars were available. The seminar for Law was on the list, and I basically figured ‘why not? It might be interesting’. I had no idea where this would lead me… From that seminar I began to research into the subject of law and ended up picking it up as an AS (extra) subject for Year 13 (Senior Year).  When I started the course, I found out just how incredibly fascinated I was about how the law operates (and how much corruption, injustice and faults there are in the system). So, I kept going with the subject thinking, ‘maybe I’m just in a sort of honeymoon phase, and eventually this will bore me’ – God has obviously had other plans. Backtracking a bit, to November, I began drafting up my personal statement and began choosing universities to apply to. With our missionary status and having lived in Holland, and visited France, Belgium and Spain, I decided that I didn’t want to focus on straight law, but wanted a more European twist to the course. One of the perks about living in Europe is that yes, these types of courses are available!
 

Around the same time, I became aware of my options for studying at Christian Liberal Arts Colleges in the US, some of which were near to my grandparents – a definite bonus! So after completing and sending off my UK university applications, I began my US applications. I chose 3 colleges to apply to and had a range of forms and essays to complete about my Christian faith walk and my academic interests. What originally pulled me towards US colleges was the appeal of a Christian environment with like-minded students who also had the desire to glorify Christ in what they do. Though this aspect is highly appealing, there is the issue of not being able to study law until postgraduate level and not having the flexibility to study European law or practice in Europe immediately after obtaining my degree - a definite disadvantage.
 

Currently, I have received 2 of my 3 offers from US Colleges, and all 5 offers from UK Universities.
 

So, why law you might ask? Well, this has been growing in me for a while now and as I deepen my understanding of the way the English legal system functions, it makes me desire change. Through many of the asylum seeker and refugee friends I have grown up knowing as family, I have been able to walk through gross injustices with them as a result of our ‘work in progress’ legal system. Their injustices have become my injustices. I am desperate to make a change. 



Here is where this first post ends, more to come next week! It's already written and waiting to be heard, but I figured it was a bit too long for one blog post. Watch this space!

God Bless,

Claire Splawn