Law graduate inspires with comeback story

On New Year’s Day 2026, at exactly 12:58 p.m., Amanda Lawes wrote down a list of goals for the year ahead. At the very top was a bold declaration: “In 2026 I will be on the pass list.” Nine months later, the 25-year-old’s words became reality when her name appeared among the successful graduates of the Norman Manley Law School.

Lawes, who crossed the stage on September 26, said the note became her source of motivation after she suffered a crushing setback the year before when she failed her second year and was forced to start over.

“The exam was my issue,” she said of her second year pursuing her legal education certificate at The University of the West Indies, Mona-based institution. “I had to start over second year.”

The failure left her questioning whether she was truly meant to pursue a career in law.

“I was just telling myself that probably this was just not for me. I don’t want to do this over because it’s really hard. I will not tell anybody that law school is easy, law school is really hard,” she said.

Repeating the year also came at a steep cost.

“Once you’re repeating a year, you don’t pay the one million [dollars], you pay two million [dollars]. So, you’re paying for the spot and the spot that you’re going to take. My parents and my partner covered those,” Lawes explained.

While her family and partner supported her decision to try again, she admitted that she struggled privately with disappointment and self-doubt. Her mother, however, refused to let her quit.

“My mom was like...’I’m going to pay the school fees. I don’t know what you’re going to do but it is going to be paid’. So, I told myself, okay, I’m going to start again, think differently, and put God first. And I just went through the journey again,” she recalled.

Before returning to the classroom, Lawes had already decided what the outcome of her second attempt would be.

The note she wrote on January 1 became more than a New Year’s resolution. Whenever the workload became overwhelming, she returned to those words for motivation.

“It served as a reminder that you can do it even though what happened last year was very hard. I was very heartbroken, but we can’t focus on that now,” she said.

At times, she said, she would revisit the note while studying to remind herself why she had chosen to start over.

“There are times when I would go back through my notes because sometimes it’s heavy. I look at it also as a reminder and use it to just push even more to study even longer and harder so that I didn’t go back here because if I did….I wasn’t going to make it out,” she said.

Her determination eventually paid off.

“I feel like the feeling still hasn’t fully sunk in as yet,” she said about crossing the stage.

Reflecting on how dramatically her life had changed in just one year, Lawes contrasted the pain of her earlier disappointment with the joy of her achievement.

“Last year this time you were crying because you were heartbroken. You didn’t want to talk to anybody. But this year you’re actually on the list. You’re going to be called to the bar in December,” she said gleefully.

Now preparing to enter the legal profession, Lawes hopes others facing setbacks will not allow failure to define them.

“It’s okay to fail. However, don’t sit in that failure. It’s okay to try again. Don’t leave God out of it,” she ended.