So this is commencement, for all the people present

I’ve been in school so long, I hope I’m more independent

Now I got my degree, that I can pass to my descendants

Throw my cap in the air, and my soul feels transcendent

Then I take off these sweaty black gowns that I’ve rented

Let’s celebrate the moment, but don’t give in to contentment

The speeches we heard, I’d like to add an amendment

Cuz we’ve only just ended the initial segment

Of our lives, I give this song for your presentment

Life never turns out exactly how we all intended

Too many of our shortcomings are self-invented

You don’t always get what you owed, like rent from a tenant

So I cherish every hour, every minute, every second

Take control of your future, like a superintendent

I wear my heart on my sleeve like a chain or a pendant

And I’ll wave it in the air like a flag or a pennant

As we go on, to the next chapter and endeavor

Hope we’ll stay as friends, come what may or whatever

Today we say goodbye, in our hearts we stay together

Forgot all I learned, but you I’ll always remember

I don’t feel any wiser, don’t feel any more clever

But I’ll cherish the times we had at school forever

Today we say goodbye, in our hearts we stay together

Forgot all I learned, but you I’ll always remember

If I were head of the class, this would be my address

Don’t ever give up on your dream or turn back on your quest

You don’t always need to look for other people to impress

Look how far we’ve traveled, look how far we’ve progressed

The graduating class has come together and coalesced

We made it through the struggles, through the pain, through the stress

Regardless of the futures that we all may possess

I know this much is true, every one of you is blessed

As we go on, to the next chapter and endeavor

Hope we’ll stay as friends, come what may or whatever

Today we say goodbye, in our hearts we stay together

Forgot all I learned, but you I’ll always remember

I don’t feel any wiser, don’t feel any more clever

But I’ll cherish the times we had at school forever

Today we say goodbye, in our hearts we stay together

Forgot all I learned, but you I’ll always remember

Carried by the current, in the river of time

Pulling me forward, with every ebb, every flow

Every rhyme, but still I got so far to climb

Trynna give y’all a feeling close to the sublime

Like the music, sending chills down my spine

I can taste every note, like expensive wine

And I free myself, from all the ties that bind

The soul to the mortal plane, leave that all behind

When the melody hits, yeah I feel just fine

Food for thought, I invite y’all to dine

On these lyrics of mine, it’s a half past nine

Minutes left for my fame, so I gots to shine

Sit back, and relax, feel free to recline

Go ahead, light a joint if you feel so inclined

I’m from Vancouver, so you know I don’t mind

Hope y’all listen to these next few lines

If we just play the roles that we are assigned

And we don’t see how they’re all intertwined

Then we spread bad karma, it responds in kind

Eye for an eye, blind leading the blind

So look beyond the stress of your everyday grind

We can’t treat the planet like a giant strip mine

If we take and take, nothing left to find

Watch it all unfold, watch it all unwind, wind

Navigating waters in the river of time

Cuz you can’t look back, you can’t press rewind

So I close my eyes, the universes combine

Meditating inside my metaphysical shrine

Think we need to start seeing apathy as a crime

Indifference is a tumor, only one that’s benign

A weed that grows, in hearts, like a rotting vine

Numb to seeing kids, blown up by landmines

Can’t wait for God and the stars to align

Gotta realize the future, is ours to design

Technology improves, but our morals decline

Success is a word that we need to redefine

Lives can’t be measured, by nickels and dimes

Satan tempting me, but his bargain I decline

Money and wealth, can’t compare to this line

Every day you see something in the world that’s divine

It’s me, back again, let you soak up the violin

I’m hoping for change, but I pray its nonviolent

South side Chicago, more shots than Kobe Bryant

For twenty three years, my inner voice was silent

Mentally adrift, but no man is an island

My demons tried to kill me, but I was defiant

In due time, escaped self-imposed confinement

Transform, beast mode into a giant

Fuck a 9 to 5, rather be my own client

Rather save my soul, than save for retirement

Modern day slavery, modern day tyrants

I’d rather paint rhymes, with words that’s vibrant

Radiating positivity like ultraviolet

Doing my part to save the environment

And stop the US from hunting down illegal migrants

The Harvard Law Rapper, with a final assignment

The Harvard Law Rapper, with a final assignment

The meaning of life, you know I’d die to find it

The Harvard Law Rapper, with a final assignment

The meaning of life, you know I’d die to find it

Today is my twenty-fourth birthday. In a month, I will obtain my law degree. Yet I believe that the learning process has only just begun. And I see now that all the perceived failures and imagined setbacks in my life have been my most helpful teachers.

I have always been driven to succeed and to compete at the highest level. But I often lacked the foresight to consider the ramifications of my actions. When I was in elementary school, I applied for an accelerated high school program for gifted students. Had I been enrolled in the program I would have graduated from high school in two years. At the time I regarded admission to the program as the ultimate affirmation of my intelligence and self-worth. Though I passed the standardized tests, I failed the psychological assessment. I was deemed to be too immature for the accelerated nature of the school. In retrospect, the assessment was correct. I needed to spend the full five years of high school with my classmates in order to develop my social skills and my understanding of the world around me. I see this now very clearly since I am one of the youngest people in my year at law school and I have often felt deficient relative to my peers in terms of maturity and life knowledge. I needed to learn that the most important lessons in life cannot just be memorized from a textbook. They must be experienced in the real world, in real time.

During Grade 12 I applied for several prestigious American universities, including Columbia University, my “dream school.” I had never been to Columbia and I had only been to New York once in my life. Again, I interpreted admission to a top school as an affirmation of my self-worth. I never actually thought about what life would be like at these schools or whether they would be good fits for my personality and my interests. Thus I was seriously demoralized when I was rejected from every single one of these East Coast institutions. A little-known fact: I actually submitted a CD of a few rap songs I recorded back in high school to Columbia as part of my application. This underscores why I probably wasn’t a good fit for these institutions in the first place.

Attending the University of British Columbia (my alma mater) was a great thing for me. I was able to be myself at UBC without judgment from my peers or my instructors. I rapped in class, I wore baseball caps every day, I played Erhu in the streets, and I took scriptwriting and song writing courses. After three years at Harvard, I am finally returning back to these creative roots, and it feels amazing. I am blessed to have been rejected by the Ivy Leagues. The experience forced me to think hard about what makes me happy, rather than assuming that money or prestige would make me happy.

When I inevitably decided to convert my Arts degree into a law degree, I applied for Columbia Law as my top choice. Again, I was rejected, although I surprisingly got into Harvard. At the time I remember sitting on the plane to Boston and just feeling a sense of calm. I tried to forget the fact that I had spent three years convincing myself that I didn’t need an Ivy League education to make myself happy, only to throw all of that away the moment I got the call from the Director of Admissions. When I went back to UBC for my convocation, I lied to my peers and I told all but a few that I had no plans after graduation.

Now, looking back, I regret shunning my time at UBC as some sort of pitstop en route to my career as a corporate lawyer. Without my expressivity and my creativity, I am nothing. Just a heap of degrees and empty words. With those qualities, however, I am unique. I can do things that nobody in Harvard even thinks about doing, let alone is capable of doing.

My last failure happened in winter break. I was dumped by my ex-girlfriend who I had been in a long-distance relationship with for half a year. I took this break-up very hard . But after much meditation, I realized that I had been unhappy with the relationship for some time. I started to reflect on other situations that made me feel empty or unfulfilled despite superficial appearances. I began to chart a path that I hoped would lead me to short-term and long-term happiness. My brainstorming led me to take the ultimate risk thus far. I decided to depart from my law firm and move to Hong Kong to work for a think tank after graduation, where I will research public policy. I had the fortune of being able to travel to Hong Kong over Spring Break, where I met with my future employer. I came away from these meetings with a very positive and optimistic view of my career in the think tank. Of course there are tremendous amounts of uncertainty involved. But the intention, at least, is to move closer towards attaining my goals of learning more about politics and about my Chinese heritage, while retaining flexibility to pursue other interests.

I am bound to encounter more failures in the future. Perhaps I will find that Asia is a bad fit; perhaps I will decide to make an ill-fated return to a legal career; perhaps I will run into money problems. All of these outcomes are entirely possible and more probable than I would like to admit. But I believe in a life-long learning process, and there’s no better way to learn than to fall and pick yourself back up again. In the words of my childhood idol, Ms. Frizzle, “Take chances, make mistakes, get messy.” Time to get messy.

What are your goals in life? How far are you willing to go to pursue your aspirations? What affirmative steps can be taken in order to make your dreams a reality?

As a student about to graduate from Harvard Law School, I have had to answer many difficult questions. In my first year I was subjected to the “Socratic Method,” whereby professors would interrogate students on the facts of legal cases and the convoluted analyses we were supposed to infer from these cases. After my first year I interviewed with thirty law firms as I competed with law students across the country for prestigious summer associate positions. During these interviews, I had to answer obvious questions (“Why do you want to be a corporate lawyer?”) and unexpected questions (“What is your favorite NBA team?”)

Ultimately I accepted an offer to work for a law firm in New York. I spent my last summer there as an associate, where I was paid by the hour to answer more questions, both intriguing and mundane.

In my final year at Harvard, I found myself with a great deal of free time. Without the stress of law firm interviews or the Socratic method to occupy my mind, I started asking myself questions that had never been asked of me at law school. Did I actually want to be a lawyer? What would I rather be doing if I decided not to practice law? And finally: How could I use my law degree to help accomplish my goals and ambitions?

These are hard questions to ask. Not because they involve complicated legal analyses, but because fulfilling our aspirations typically requires enormous sacrifice and compromise. For risk-averse individuals, it can be easier to ignore our passions and focus on more immediate concerns, such as paying off student loans. Even when we build up the courage to contemplate a better future for ourselves, fatigue and self-doubt often convince us to follow conventional paths. We can forget that we had dreams at all.

I want to mention that I am blessed with hardworking and supportive parents who paid for my education with their own money. As such I am not motivated by the same factors that guide students with significant student debt. I have more flexibility in deciding the career I want to pursue, and I am immensely grateful for that. I also want to note that for many people, working a stable job with a high income is indeed their dream. But I still believe that we should ask hard questions of ourselves in our search for lasting happiness.

My aspiration is to be a musician. I love expressing myself through music and lyrics, and I look to my pencil whenever I encounter difficult moments in my life. Since my youth I have always gravitated towards the hip-hop genre. I love hip-hop because rapping enables me to utilize my talents in poetry while turning the tables on negative Asian-American stereotypes. In particular, since Asian-American men are often emasculated or marginalized in popular culture, I find that hip-hop can be an ideal vehicle to rebut these negative portrayals and replace them with my own views on Asian-American identity.

I began performing hip-hop songs in high school after I successfully auditioned for a school talent show. Soon I was rapping regularly in school concerts and charity events. However, I stopped performing after I entered college. I was convinced that it was time to “grow up,” get a job, and leave my old pastimes behind.

It took six years before I started writing rhymes again. Once I started, I found that I could not stop. After I wrote twelve songs, I decided to record my songs in a professional studio. I had never been to a recording studio before. Yet each time I recorded a song, I felt happier and freer than I had in years. I shared my music online and created my own website. By this time I was convinced that my project had the potential to appeal to a wide audience. I started hiring directors and actors for a music video.

Although I had never shot a music video before, I had faith in my message and in my music. I believed in my heart that making these videos would move me closer to my aspiration of becoming a musician. This was how I realized I could use my Harvard Law education to attain my goals. By writing honestly and openly about my journey through law school and how my experiences have changed my perceptions on the world, I felt like I had a compelling story that people from all backgrounds could potentially relate to.

When I was first admitted to HLS, I imagined that I would graduate with a steady job and a prestigious degree while earning the respect and admiration of everyone I encountered. At the time, that was all I wanted. But now I believe that it is more important than ever to keep our passions alive while attending college or graduate school. It is my view that we cannot lose sight of our underlying goals in life lest we succumb to the ennui of a meaningless existence.

We all have aspirations. No matter how unrealistic or unconventional our ambitions may be, I believe they are all worth pursuing. Even if we fail, the mistakes we make along the way will make us stronger and happier individuals. I hope you feel the same way too.

Dare to dream. Ask hard questions. You will find that there are like-minded people out there in the world who will share your passions and support your struggle to find happiness. It is never easy to sacrifice for our goals, but I truly believe that we can succeed. Together, we can make all of our dreams a reality.

Miss New 1L, you’re now a law student

Woke up early in the morning, cuz you heard it’d be imprudent

To be late for your first class of Civil Procedure

If the prof calls on you, just might get a seizure

Hair all in a mess when you run out the door

But you left your casebook on your bedroom floor

And by the time you realize, you’re already in your seat

Prof walks in, guess who he decides to greet

With the first cold call, and you forgot the holding

Whole class stares at you as the scene’s unfolding

By the time he’s through, you’re a household name

You shrink deep into your seat, face burning with shame

When you first got in, they made you feel like God

But now you’re sure it’s a mistake, and you feel like a fraud

Bad enough you’re gonna be 200K in debt

First day, and you’re full of regrets

Miss Rising 2L, in your formal attire

Doing on campus interviews, time to get hired

For that law firm job that everybody desires

Though by now you’ve forgotten what you wanted to do, prior

To starting law school and paying tuition

Everyone’s been saying your dreams came to fruition

But you’ve lost so much sleep you haven’t dreamt at all

You phone your man at a time you hadn’t meant to call

And you talk for hours about your hopes and fears

As you contemplate the next couple of years

Making more money than you could have ever imagined

As an Arts major, with no useful passions

But he can’t relate, he hasn’t bought into the hype

Misses the old you, the girl you used to be like

So you hang up on him, and you feel your heart throb

Next day you’re accepting the job

Miss Jaded 3L, and you’re having a blast

It’s been months since your ass last showed up to class

You’re on a beach somewhere, working on your new tan

With the cash from last summer, and your new man

Ever since you got the call your life’s been full of excess

Fancy dinners, fancy clothes, a Manhattan address

I guess, this is the fast life that you earned

Although you struggle to remember anything that you learned

In your three years, a whole lotta doctrine and theory

A lil Crim, some Torts, and a whole lotta Erie

But when your friends ask for some legal advice

You’ve got nothing to say, and then you feel like the price

Of admission was more than the dough and the stress

You gave up on your inner journey of growth and progress

And you let someone else tell you what you should believe

Listen close, cuz this happened to me

When I was young, me and my mom had beef

I was always causing trouble, always causing grief

Back in elementary school, never paid attention

So I wound up with my ass thrown in detention

I always talked back to my teachers

So they gave me time outs, sat me down on the bleachers

Mama picked me up after school

Cuz I was fighting other kids, or I was acting the fool

I cried every time, and I didn’t know why

I had all this negative energy inside

Mama had to work, so I knew she was busy

I felt bad when she had to come and get me

But it felt so empty, the life I led

So I became a hypochondriac instead

Pretended to be sick, but it was all in my head

I just wanted to stay home and lie on my bed

And read comic books and watch cartoons

Mama came home from work a little too soon

And she got mad at me, for lying to her face

I wish I could have turned back the clock and traced

Everything I did before to make her worry

Erased the outlines until they all got blurry

There’s no way I can pay you back, but the plan

Is to show you that I understand

You are appreciated

Now my mama wasn’t a tiger mom

If she was, I wouldn’t know how to write this song

But I did take lots of piano lessons

And my grades were higher than Charlie Nesson

I don’t know whether I was being pushed

Harder than other kids, prolly harder than Bush

Cuz I got into Harvard without connections

No doubt, I would, never make the selection

Without my mama, man she was the bomb

You see, she wasn’t no stay at home mom

She got her CPA, and her MBA

To me, that shit’s like making the NBA

For an immigrant with no family assistance

She paid her own way, with wit and persistence

Weren’t for me, she could’ve been a CEO

That’s how I feel, I guess only she knows

As a child, yeah I was never coddled

With an educated mother as my role model

Always pushing me to greater heights

Through the lonesome days and sleepless nights

For better or worse, when shit hit the fan

Without my mama, I wouldn’t be who I am

There’s no way I can pay you back, but the plan

Is to show you that I understand

You are appreciated

Pour out some liquor and I reminisce, cuz through the drama

I can always depend on my mama

When I wasn’t making friends as a preteen

You were always there to say we was on the same team

When I grew up, as a troubled teenager

You supported me when I decided my major

I knew my heart, wasn’t in the study of science

But I felt English was an act of defiance

A useless major in the eyes of many

Least that’s what I thought at the age of twenty

You told me, to just follow my passions

Be good at what I do, fuck what’s in fashion

When I transferred back to Vancouver

You told me to be happy, not worry about the future

Now I’m in Harvard Law

And I’m still in awe, given all my flaws

But it’s still not quite what I’d like to do

So I’ll take some time and I’ll write to you

There’s no way I can pay you back, but the plan

Is to show you that I understand

You are appreciated

Yo, My hands are sweaty,

Clammy, ice cold as a yeti

I’m on the edge like a machete, feeling unsteady

I’m nervous, but on the surface I look calm and ready

For EIP, but I still feel upset, this isn’t like me

Normally I’m oh so ready, but now I’m messy

I can see cracks in the levee

Bout to burst, into tears, got so many fears

Not prepared for this shit, future’s so unclear

Snap back to the interview, losing my dinner

And lunch, that’s due to the stress in my inner

I used to be a winner, now I’m a beginner

In my suit and tie, my heart racing like a sprinter

And I’m feeling like a sinner, cuz I’m far from a saint

I made mistakes, grades low, yeah I got no A’s

And now I got no restraints, a firm lawyer I ain’t

You bout to see J.KO put on his war paint

Dreaming ‘bout escaping, this life that I’m shaping

Refuse to embrace the status quo, wanna make it big

I’m not content to, just go where you went to

Begin my ascent into a higher plane, that’s where I’m

Meant to be, not with all these fucking gunners

Who think life can be measured by grades and numbers

I’m not as smart as you, least in terms of books

So initially that got me over here looking shook

Then I realized, you just like the rest of us

You got a V10 job, so what’s the fucking fuss

Still unhappy with your life, you still bitch and moan

About your boring ass classes, and your student loans

Well I’mma break the cycle, and that ain’t no typo

I’ll recruit some Harvard 1L’s to be my disciples

And I’ll lead us all to a far better tomorrow

Time is of the essence, and it can’t be borrowed

Showed up to Harvard with a Yankee fitted

Guess I never fit in since the day I was admitted

Just got off the phone, now the whole room is spinning

Someone took my website to ATL and submitted

Now I’m afraid that I won’t be permitted

To keep rapping, so I stop, with my teeth gritted

But I realize that long as I keep spitting

I have a voice, so I decide to be committed

To my music, I dropped that and I quit it

I’ll never eat my words again, rather just shit

And live it up, spite of these odds I am pitted

If Eric Garner’s killers can get they ass acquitted

Then I must speak out for the truth that’s omitted

From our memory, so feel the vibe I’m emitting

Plot gets thicker, all the tales I’m spinning

You can make a lotta money, but still keep sinning

The world is burning outside, but the rich stay grinning

Til we see, the reality we’re not admitting

I can’t keep losing, so I gotta start winning

No time left to waste, no extra innings

Won’t let my mind rot, keep my train of thought

I put my life on the line for the battles I fought

You gotta earn your spot, man it can’t be bought

This may be the only opportunity that I got

You love Sam Smith, you aren’t the only one

Now that you’re gone, I hear this song and I’m a lonely one

Lighting up a joint, and I inhale slowly

Somewhere you’re with your new boyfriend, bet he’s a phony one

I’m not a scientist, that’s why I’m rhyming this

Writing down my feelings, yeah cuz love is not a science

It’s an art, it’s a war with ever-shifting alliances

Reminding us, of the fact that we’re reliant

On each other, for affection, for comfort and guidance

But the mind is a device and it has many appliances

Sometimes I’m sad, sometimes I’m defiant

In denial, then I ask, am I gon lose my mind to this

Delusion of the soul, all I wanted was control

But I done lost my way, and I long forgot my goal

Now it’s dark outside, cuz I thought you were my only sun

Time to move on, I got one life, and only one

They say I’m going crazy, condition of the heart

Telling me to take it back, back to the start

Before I overanalyzed with numbers, figures and charts

You know I always overthink this shit, and that ain’t real smart

I had to find you, had to remind you

Remember the mistakes, but remember the good times too

I don’t regret, playing cards that God assigned you

And me, but I know I let you down, and that surprised you

Blind to it all, should’ve seen you were resigned to

Free yourself of all the mental ties, that bind you

To me, and shit, nobody said it was easy

But nobody told me how completely this moment would seize me

Seep into my bones, like the cold winter breeze be

So if you call me on the phone, or if you see me

Walking on the road less traveled, yeah it’s a lonely one

Time to move on, I got one life, and only one

I miss my hometown, how far I’ve grown now

Been away so long that home don’t really feel like home now

Promised to myself I’d come back, I should’ve known now

I had the best intentions, but I broke my own vows

Now it’s big city lights, shit I want the glory

Whole fam stayed in Van, I’m gone rewrite the story

Thought that law school would be the last chapter

Til I realized that I’d be happier as a rapper

Than a lawyer, cuz I”m not interested in finance

Fuck an IPO, I’d rather put my life in my hands

Sleeping in class, while dreaming of a better me

Trynna free my mind, yeah like taking an amphetamine

One life to live so we gotta stop pretending

Nobody but you can write your own happy ending

Call me a dreamer, yeah but you’ll be the lonely one

Rest in Peace, John Lennon, bet I’m not the only one, imagine