*all names have been changed.
The 26th of September 2015 marked a day that I had been dreaming about since I could talk. Growing up I never had a burning desire to study somewhere in particular, friends of mine spoke about Cambridge, Oxford, LSE starry-eyed and in love. I just wanted to: go to university, live away from my parents, see the world and study Medicine. So on that blessed Saturday I sat in my parents’ car accompanied by my siblings and we literally drove to my future. A future that I had not envisioned for myself a year prior. I was off to the University of York where I would be reading law — now we won’t get into the medicine story.
What we will address instead is time. Time, a social construct that seems to dictate everything around us. Tardiness is always unacceptable, and being late is a surefire way to upset every human being on this planet. This is best exemplified by my best friend who is the most chilled being in this galaxy but on her 22nd birthday she lost her cool. I was her designated escort to her birthday party and I was *incredibly* late to pick her up… because I was getting my hair done [in Uxbridge].
Consciously or unconsciously humans and everything man made is controlled by time. We all have a bedtime and the dreaded wake-up time; buses, planes and trains run on a schedule dictated by time; businesses have opening times; and food products have expiry dates. Ecclesiastes 3 [KJV] summarises it best “to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted”.
Time had taught me so much by September 2015. It had forced me to restrategise, demanded new dreams and goals, it had taught me patience and endurance. Time had also been incredibly kind to my CV and LinkedIn profile. Here I was, 19, off to York Law School on a partial scholarship from a US law firm. With work experience at a range of Magic and Silver Circle law firms, a mini pupillage placement, having worked with governmental bodies on tackling youth unemployment, spoken in front of hundreds of people and a full year of working an entry level job for a very established national charity. I was ready to claim York as my own. Claim I did.
Fast forwarding to 3 weeks into university, we [the squad] were in our mate *Tyler’s room. Drake was playing in the background, some early day romances were blossoming in the corner, some were sleeping, some were eating and some were playing on the segway [LOL, remember those?]. Myself and *Jacob stumbled into a conversation about our first year insight programmes application and our progress or lack thereof. Attention around the room slowly became directed towards to us and our conversation. People started asking questions, about these mystical investment banks, and consulting firms we spoke of. It became clear to me in that moment that my close proximity to the City of London had offered me opportunities and insights that my equally as intelligent and capable peers could not access from Manchester, Kent or the Midlands — the privilege of London. From that moment on they were playing catch up to us who already understood the corporate ecosystem. It was a weird revelation that my postcode, something I had absolutely no regard for before had offered me some kind of… privilege. The feeling unsettled me somehow.
Whether it is law, finance, tech — it is an undisputed fact that distribution of jobs, opportunities, and funding is centrally located in the capital. Governmental schemes to devolve power to cities and localised authorities has had little impact with investors and corporate entities continuing to set up shop in London. With the B [rexit] word looming conversations about how to better distribute opportunities and jobs have quietened down, with all resources being funnelled in keeping London’s status as a global financial and legal hub.
Consequently, post graduation all my brilliant friends, having secured graduate schemes flocked to London. Living and working in London I completely forget its appeal. We’re all well versed in “the American dream”. I’m here to pose a new ideology — “the London dream”, my friends are living examples of it. Many grads relocate to London to join shiny suit gang, on a salary which is double that of their parents and makes absolutely no sense for a recent graduate, with no actual experience bar the 12-week summer internship [for us lawyers to be a 4 week vacation scheme] but equipped with a can do attitude.
At law school, I would become really good friends with an expat, who had studied in London and had returned because she felt somewhat stifled by the lack of opportunity in her home country. She would give up home comforts, the sun, the beach, and the fantastic food because in actuality home for her was a small island and her dreams and ambitions had outgrown it. Although, a fabulous holiday location which I would visit on my Asia tour, and cause me to question her decision again over a native mango dessert. It brought me back to that same sense of privilege, I get to build my career in the city where my family resides, something I had never even thought about as blessing. But it is indeed a blessing. The privilege of London is not only regional but very much an international phenomenon. I would meet aspiring lawyers from Abu Dhabi, Canada, and Australia all looking for their own little slice of their own London Dream. I would also hear stories and experience the heart-wrenching goodbye’s that have to be said to those who upon graduation would not be sponsored by firms and being denied their own London Dream.
M [my travel buddy and soul sister] and I, on Friday the 20th of September were sitting at Penongs in Puerto Princesa [Philippines] waiting on our food after a long flight from Singapore. We could not help but notice a group of young people seated on a table that seemed never ending having the time of their lives. I asked M, “birthday?”, she nodded and said “definitely”. We aww’d sneaking quick glances at this group of people, reminiscent of our own university friends. It was only two weeks prior we were all seated at a similar table in Shoreditch catching up on work, who is dating who, telling each other of our latest skin care routines and laughing at something stupid.
One of the boys at the table walked past our table, me being me I quickly said “hiyaaaa” and smiled. He smiled back, greeting us both and we got into a conversation. They were university students on their monthly social they all studied engineering albeit different types of engineering. He made a joke about his friend attending the social solely because her crush was also in attendance. We laughed and tried to figure out which guy in the group was her crush all this whilst she blushed and giggled. As the conversation continued we were joined by other members of his society. Then it came. “Where are you guys from?”, M and I replied in sync “London”. It was as if we had said we were Malia and Sasha Obama. There were gasps of excitement and incessant questions “do you know Little Mix?”, “do you support Arsenal?”, “wow, what are you doing here?” etc.
Post Q&A which consisted of us wheeling off our standard answers. The President of the society, spoke about their victory in an international competition for the Philippines but they were unable to attend the final in Canada as they had no funds and could not consequently afford to go. I admired the gentlement’s articulation of the sitution. He didn’t inform us in a sad or self-deprecating manner, he said it positively as if he held on only to the positives and let the negatives be just matters of fact. Being ever the empath my heart sunk but I continued to smile as we congratulated them on their amazing achievement.
I knew M and I were thinking the same thing “I wish I could whip out my debit card and book them all flights to Canada”. When they left the restaurant, M and I scolded the Canadian government for not providing the means to get them there. Then the conversation turned to how different the result would have been had it been us. We know so many people who have fundraised tens of thousands of Great British Pounds [as my brother says] to attend Harvard, Yale, Columbia. Had the students been British rather than Filipino they would have raised the funds independently using GoFundMe, if not their university would reached into their secret money pot and contributed, or a Big Four accountancy firm would sponsored them or someone wealthy after seeing their LinkedIn posts would have secretly reached out and paid. This is the privilege of being British. We let the thought depress us for a minute.
Growing up, has taught me that I cannot fight every battle, and not every cause can be mine to carry. That one story has made M and I seriously think about how do we use our capital going forward to give back in a way that is most helpful without having a saviour complex. It is easily to think that learning comes only from books, mentors, set rigid academic structures. Travelling through South East Asia has taught me so much about life, love and business. This series of articles are a storage box for me to document my learnings so I never forget. Post defeat from the Andy Ruiz match Anthony Joshua tweeted “never let success get to your head, and failure to your heart”. A quote originally from financier Ziad K Abdelnour’s Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics — the president stood before us an human embodiment of this. Reminding me once again, that victories and defeats build character and should not be the measure of a person.
After reflecting on our encounter with the students. I have come to the conclusion that London privilege comes not only with the onus to give back but the obligation to be great. Life is hard, and individual circumstances pose serious barriers to individuals. I get it. I’ve lived it. We who reside in parts of the world where from the top of our heads can think of hundreds of ways to raise money to attend an international competition in Canada even though we personally do not have the funds. We must enter the competition in the first place, and be brilliant enough to win! We must look harder at the spaces in which we can create and utilise opportunities.
Welcome to the inner workings of my brain. I hope you have had and continue to have an amazing time here. Until the next time.
