Can't nobody hold Chau down, oh no!

I have a new hero/inspiration. She's 5 foot tall, must weigh like 42 kilos, of slim build and speaks viet. Not your typical picture yeah? Her name is Chau and we used to study together back in the day @ UWS, Macarthur. Chau is easily the most determined person I've ever met.

The reason that she's my inspiration? Well I've sending her SMS's for the last couple of weeks and I decided to call her mobile. It was disconnected so I called her home phone. And I find out that she's gone to the UK to work for a year. That's out of the ordinary but not extreme. But she just came back from a year working in New York for a law firm, and studying Masters of international business part time at the same time. And the year b4 that, she had spent it in Canada studying and travelling the US.

She finished uni like a year before I did and we started at the same time! She'd overload each semester with like 5 or 6 subjects. Do 2 subjects in the summer while everyone was on holidays. And work like 3 or 4 days a week at a law firm. It was just insane. I was surprised that she didn't just breakdown and cry.

She was one of a handful of people that felt the same way I did about UWS. I wanted to get out bad. After my first week of uni, I made up my mind to get out and go to UTS or Sydney Uni. I hated the 1-2 hour travel to get there. It felt like Bouganville. The people there were fantastic and some of my best friendships were formed there. But it felt like the outback and that everyone wasn't as competitive or driven like me. I found my oasis: Rebecca, Addison, Nguyen and of course, Chau.

Chau was the one person that worked harder than me. And still does to this day. She told me she was going to work overseas, and I thought this was another farfetched idea from her. But the New York thing blew me away. And when her sister told me over the phone that she gone to the UK, i just smiled again and thought "That's Chau". I'm so happy for you.

I'll put my money on it that you'll be the most successful person career wise I'll know. The first Asian female CEO that's 5 foot. I can see it now!

My UWS Experience

I didn't get the marks to go to a prestigious law school like UNSW, Sydney, UTS or even Macquarie. But the only thing I wanted to do was study law and commerce, cause these were the only things that interested me. I figured I'd rather study what I love, rather than study commerce and hope to get a transfer into commerce/law. It was too much of a risk, in case I didn't get it. But after a week, and considering my future career prospects I decided to get out. Maybe it was being biased, maybe it was because I thought I was better than UWS, maybe it was because I hated seeing the cows and the cowboys on the train ride to Macarthur.

Whatever the case may have been, I decided to work my ass off for that one year. I must admit, I've never worked harder in my life. My uni results were like off the charts, with nearly a distiniction in every subject. You know, I really enjoyed the study - learning about criminal law, consitutional law, legal ethics, macroeconomics. In fact, the teaching was actually a lot better at UWS. I loved the way classes were run, and I was really mentally challenged and class was just fun to attend. They ran law classes in an innovative way. No lectures, just two hour tutorial and one hour practical class. No other uni does this.

And the people? They were fantastic. I met people from the real "Wesside" - Cabramatta, Fairfield, Parramatta, Green Valley. To be honest, it seemed like there were two majority races there: Viets or Lebs. People just assumed that I was Viet because that's who I hung around. Plus, I wore a baseball cap and microfibre/suit pants which was in fashion then. Looking back, I can't believe I wore that! That's disgusting!

I still remember my "group":
- Nguyen: who i still talk to and is working in the UK
- Luke "Crazyee": from my old hi skool
- Katey: Standard outfit, Jeans and adidas superstar sneaks!
- Melissa: Crazy giggling italian chick who dropped out of uni but continued to turn up at uni to convince her parents she hadn't dropped out!
- Olivia: The prettiest girl on campus.

We used to hang out all the time on the steps around the oval. Or the cafeteria. That was us. If it wasn't for you guys, uni would have been unbearable.

The one thing that I liked about going to a smaller uni, was that everyone knew each other. Everyone knew everyone. So I must have been known as that determined vietnamnese asian gangster who answered every question in class. I still remember in criminal law class where the tutor would say "Could someone besides DJ Ho answer a question?".

After a year, my wish was answered, and I went to a bigger uni in the city. And became another student number. Another law graduate processed through the system. Instead of UWS, my degree says "UTS". Swapped the "W" for a "T".

Peace Out.

DJ Ho