"I will have my marshmallow later," January, named after the leading female character in the ’70s Jacqueline Susann novel "Once is Not Enough," smiles sweetly when asked if she intends to take off after her feat.
January, however, believes in "suspended pleasure."
For now, she intends to absorb herself in work, wanting to take advantage of the training a lawyer gets at the prestigious ACCRA Law Office, where she has been working since November last year. She and her husband are still saving up for their own car, and January takes an FX shuttle from a rented home in Taguig to the ACCRA offices in Makati City every day.
Her simple and disciplined ways and her desire to postpone gratification for now is the result of her having had to work for her dreams as far back as she could remember. Born in Gunduilman, Bohol, she reveals without bitterness or embarrassment that she is a "love child," raised almost entirely by her mother.
Her mother Columba was both a working student and a single mother — and her tough emotional and social balancing act made her the star of her young daughter’s life. Columba graduated with a degree in Commerce at the age of 31, at about the same time her daughter was graduating from elementary school.
January thus grew up believing "that the one sure way to one’s dreams is to study and work hard." And work hard, January, nicknamed "Jary," did. She never had a maid — still does not — and when she could not take care of her son herself, her mother Columba helped out. Like her mother, January was a working student but she managed to graduate cum laude from University of the Philippines (UP) Law School – by making every minute count.
"I would even review my cases on the bus in the hour between leaving office and reporting for my 6 p.m classes at the UP Law School," she recalls. Because she was a working student, it took her five, instead of four years, to graduate from law school. She only quit her day job to review for the Bar exams, a period when she received much-needed financial support from her father Renato, a mechanical engineer working in Saudi Arabia.
To prepare for the grueling Bar exams, January gave up coffee, soft drinks and meat, believing in healthy alternatives. Her discipline paid off, for she was in the pink of health throughout her six-month review.
On the day the results of the exam were to be released, January shut off her cell phone and, with a friend, sought sanctuary at St. Jude’s Church on J. P. Laurel street in Manila, where she prayed for three hours.
"My prayer was simply to pass the Bar, honestly," she told The STAR. "I was not praying to top it. I prayed to God to give me the strength and grace to accept His will," she adds.
Her prayer brought her much peace and after Mass, she told her friend Maan, who had accompanied her to St. Jude, that she was ready to turn on her cell phone and accept her fate.
Maan, who had not turned off her cell phone, gave January a big smile and put her on the line to a friend in the Supreme Court who told her that she had not only passed the Bar, she had topped it! It was a double celebration for January, for that very day also happened to be her only son Jacob’s fourth birthday. Then with tears of joy streaming down her cheeks, January walked back to St. Jude’s Church and lit a candle in thanksgiving. January hopes that, through her feat in topping the Bar, she will be able to inspire other wives and mothers — who have no choice but to work — that they can truly have it all — home, career and happiness. She and her husband Jay, a government employee who is also taking up law, are content and are not impatient for their "marshmallow."
During Jacob’s fourth birthday party the next day, there were two cakes. Jacob’s, which had Superman on it, and January’s, which had the number "1" on it. For now, both mother and son are living their dreams.