Love of Literature

If one asks me a solid preparation for law studies or for that matter theological study, it will be literature in the humanities in particular. In fact, my law studies were preparation for my study of theology six years on after giving up law practise.

In an age where youths do not read much or at all, it is important to emphasise the love of literature. As a non Christian and hardly a Christian upbringing I learned English by rote or text books in the first few years. It was only when I was Primary Five, embarrassed by a distant cousin who was in kindergarden that I began my reading of English literature in earnest. 

Not the humanities but Agatha Christie’s, Famous Five, Enid Blyton come to mind. When I reached Form 1, I even took a liking to love novels by Mills and Boon. Very soon I found myself greatly improved in English and in composition. By form 2 I have mastered tons of vocabulary and by Form 2 (13 yo) I began reading TIME magazine and got interested in world affairs and politics. Soon I was reading a whole lot and by Form 4 or 5, I ordered a whole year of Economist. 

I increased in knowledge as well as in English writing. So when I went to Melbourne for Year 12 I did not find English challenging and my senior year’s English essay was on Bob Hawke and his union work and Hawke later became Australia’s Prime Minister. 

Even then I did not know what I wanted to do, and I chose as my uni courses on Accounting and Engineering as my top two choices. At a Ringwood library I filled in a form for entry into NZ Unis and I put Law as my first choice. No way I was going to NZ since my heart was set on staying in Melbourne. But God had other plans for my life.