No Pressure

The term above is a common phrase used in PILS to help a team that is competing achieve greatness by ironically adding more pressure. My name is Theo Prawiradirdja, but people usually call me TP for short. I am currently an active PILS member and now in my last year of study. During these last few months as an active PILS member, I have a few interesting stories that I would like to share you all about PILS and about myself. 

The journey I started with PILS began in 2017, I literally started back in my first weeks as a freshman. To be honest, I joined PILS just for one reason, so I get to wear a sharp, tailored suit. This is because I was and still am a big fan of wearing a suit. Through my journey with PILS, I experienced  from the highlight to even the lowlight moments. Due to the constraint of space, I will just share a few of my most memorable moments. 

The first memorable moment was joining the 2018 IHL Moot. This competition was my first competition where I become an oralist. Before joining IHL, I already experienced what an oral pleading was going to be like, through an internal moot. But what I failed to understand was the immense pressure that I was going to face. 2018 also happens to be the year UNPAR hosted the IHL, which means that I will have to perform exceptionally well, or at least not embarrass UNPAR and PILS. So yeah … yeay no pressure … no pressure. To be honest, it was super stressful, day in day out was just IHL materials non-stop, and with each passing day, the competition date was getting closer. But the funny thing is, the closer it gets to competition the more relaxed I get, at least for me I know that I was in good hands during practice. So long story short, the competition came and went, and we won.  That was only the national rounds.  

The next moment was actually after the 2018 IHL. After that competition, I was competing in Hong Kong for the IHL regional rounds representing Indonesia. The experience in Hong Kong was mind-blowing. I get to meet teams around Asia that were super good, judges that are so critical that their question would resemble a surgery knife slicing through arguments. Overall, it was very eye-opening and humbling experience. But aside from the competition itself, I got to meet friends from abroad, travel around Hong Kong and do lots of fun stuff. The host, which is the International Committee for the Red Cross, also held some cool and educational events for the participants. 

As for the last moment, I would give it to the 2020 Philip C Jessup. The fun and memorable part of this competition was during the memorial drafting and team meetings of the competition. During those meetings, I get to spend a lot of fun time with my teammates since they were already my best friends and my former teammates from previous competitions. As for the competition itself, for me, it was a chance to show my quality as the 2018 IHL champion and for my teammates a chance for redemption. The team was filled with veterans and some of the most ambitious mooters I know. The expectation was high, so yeah, once more, no pressure. My goal was simply to go abroad again, since I have already experienced it in IHL and it was some of the best times I had while mooting. The competition came and went, after some tough rounds, we won 2nd Runner-Up, and it was enough to get us a DC-bound ticket. Unfortunately, we didn’t go thanks to COVID. However, I still think that the 2020 Jessup Competition was the perfect culmination of relentless hard work since my freshman days.  

In conclusion, was joining PILS worth it and full of fun? Yes, totally. Is it something I would do it again? In a heartbeat. Well, to end this story of mine, to all new and future mooters reading this remember “Pressure can turn rocks into diamonds, but it also turns diamonds into dust”. So, no pressure.

About the Author:

Theo Prawiradirdja is a current member of PILS from FH UNPAR 2017. He has participated in numerous moot court competitions and has achieved, among others, National Champions of IHL 2018 and Best Oralist of the 2020 Jessup National Rounds.