While I wait for my university transcripts and until I sort out a referee, I composed the “personal statement” for my application to a Graduate Diploma in Law.
My heart is in IT. It has been what I’ve wanted to do since I was a teen. After not such an unsuccessful career, publishing a book in IT at 27 and working in exotic locations such as Australia and New Zealand and living my childhood dream of working for Apple in Silicon Valley (during Steve Jobs tenure), I was diagnosed last summer with a serious life changing mental illness. Delusional disorder. Compounded by a year of struggling to find work in IT and living off the welfare of family and the government I am compelled to make a change to my career.
Though I don’t find the illness itself to be debilitating or inhibiting in any way, it may be the commercial IT industry is cautious employing candidates with mental illnesses such as mine. As a result I’ve had to give serious consideration to a future career that might be accommodating to a person diagnosed with delusional disorder. In particular career lifestyle. My best friend from Oxford is a barrister in London. He has given me considerable insight into the life of a barrister: the flexible work arrangements and independence certainly would be more suitable than that of a solicitor.
My background is Sri Lankan. It is a consequence of the 30 year civil war between the Sinhalese and Tamils that I was sent back to Britain to study in my teens. It is a further consequence of these ethnic tensions that resulted in my mental illness. Human rights remains a topic of great concern for my people. Having myself had an incursion with the police and the law over my Twitter, having been sectioned unceremoniously (and had it overturned at a tribunal) last summer has pricked my interest in both the Mental Health Act and laws regarding freedom of speech on the ‘net. (Coincidently, the UK has sponsored a UN resolution against Sri Lanka’s human rights record including unlawful detentions and a clampdown on freedom of the press). Sadly, Sri Lanka has become incredibly unreceptive to foreign intervention. I believe it will benefit greatly from expertise and opinion of Sri Lankan origin. Together, these personal experiences and political happenings in Sri Lanka have sparked a newfound interest in the law. I believe an education in law will be of huge service to me personally and hopefully to my people.
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