Law and Social Justice has recently become a degree in University College Dublin (UCD). The course combines “the study of law with the study of social exclusion, its causes and remedies. It will appeal to students who are interested in issues of equality, diversity and disadvantage, and who want to look in-depth at the social context in which law operates”, or so my sister tells me as she fills in her CAO form.
It’s like a throwback to 2014. It could as easily be me writing in my options, choosing law under the misguided belief that this is the only way I can help change the world around me. The only difference between her and I is that I seem to have crossed the bridge to “adulthood” – knowing that ambitious dreams and the future reality rarely go hand in hand, painfully aware that the future tends to have different things in store. For many, trainee programmes and internships are chosen in favour of voluntary work placements or charity work.
People who aim to change the world enter college hoping that their degree is what was missing in the past. Students come in after the Leaving Certificate full of the naivety of youth, thinking that the world has been the way it is because it lacks their passion. The question I often find myself asking is: how long does this last?
The way we see the world at 18 is inherently different from the way we see it at 21. As the saying goes, you can’t run before you can walk
The initial struggle of college alone pulls the rug out from under your feet. Many find it harder than they expected. With law, I found myself discovering comfort in the monotony of rules of land, contract and tort law, in which there is always a correct answer. There is a satisfaction to be gained from being right and capable of eloquently arguing the case. But this invariably means that passions have been put to the side, taking the essential option of compulsory academic subjects. Three years in and the unfamiliar territory of human rights seems a risky choice. Contentious issues have become an interesting aside hobby while we pave the way to a safe, secure career.
Could our eighteen-year-old selves sue for breach of contract? Legal contracts require an offer and acceptance, as does the CAO. Was putting law, rather than my initial desire to do economics, signing a contract to change the world?
My 21-year-old self would argue that the contract was too vague and therefore unenforceable. Terms and conditions weren’t expressed, it was never written down and as such it is nowhere to be found. Unenforceable. Would my 18-year-old self’s legal representation say that the terms and conditions were implied? That although law may not mean that for everyone, that was the understanding with which it was decided and then signed?
The way we see the world at 18 is inherently different from the way we see it at 21. As the saying goes, you can’t run before you can walk. Legal jargon is a new game and the rules must be learnt before they can be broken. Constitutional law, contracts and torts are your legal baby steps, whereas human rights or “changing the world” subjects are marathons that are at an undecided date in the future, if you feel like running.
Sacrificing your whole college degree on the rocky road of “changing the world” without any direction can seem like a leap of faith that is just too risky to take
Our years in university provide us with chances to explore other options. We may, however, end up taking the well-beaten path, even as we can still hear the Leaving Certificate poetry of Robert Frost ringing in our ears that the “road less travelled…[can]make all the difference”. Choosing traineeships may be putting dreams to the side, but it’s with a promise of a steady, future career path. Sacrificing your whole college degree on the rocky road of “changing the world” without any direction can seem like a leap of faith that is just too risky to take.
And yet, despite a general cynicism, people – whether using their “world changing” interests as a part time hobby or a full time third-level course – continue to try. Change starts at home, and students in Trinity have been adamant about improving the lives around them one step at a time. From college societies such as the Voluntary Tuition Programme (VTP) providing free tuition to students who wouldn’t have gotten it otherwise, or marching in protest against higher education fees, the passion of changing the world is still alive and well.
At the end of the day, it is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward, only to stumble back.
