The term above is a common phrase used in PILS to help a team that is competing achieve greatness by ironically adding more pressure. Hello, My name is Theo Prawiradirdja, but people usually call me TP for short. I am a 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 when I wasin my first weeks as in a freshman. To be honest, I joined PILS just for the soleone reason, so I get to wear a sharp, tailored suit. this This is because I was and still am a big fan of wearing a suit. Through the my journey with PILS, I experienced a lot of stuff 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 International Humanitarian Law (“IHL”)IHL Moot. This competition was my first competition where I become an oralist. Before joining IHL, I already experienced what an oralist oral pleading was going to be like, through an event that PILS hostedinternal moot. But what I failed to know understand was the immense pressure that wasI was going to face waiting. During that time, I also learned that the host for the 20182018 also happens to be the year UNPAR hosted the IHL was UNPAR, which means that I will have to perform exceptionally well, or at least not embarrass UNPAR and PILS or so I thought. 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 days, 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 days came and went, and we won.  So that was the story of IHL. Now to my next memorable momentThat 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 a mind-blowing experience. 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 mooting competitionthe competition itself, I get 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 super 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 the previous competitions. As for the competition itself, for me, it was a chance to show my quality as the 2018  IHL2018 IHL champion and for my teammates a chance for redemptions. 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. MSo, yeah, no pressure 😉. Well, my goal was simply to go abroad again actually to go travel abroad again, since I have already experienced it and was addictingin IHL and it was some of the best times I had while mooting. When the competition came, lo and behold we secured a seat bound for DC along with some other awardsThe 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 did notn’t go thanks to the Corona VirusCOVID. However, I still think that the 2020 Jessup Competition was the perfect culmination of relentless hard work since my freshman days.  

So as for the conclusionIn 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. No pressure.   remember “Pressure can turn rocks into diamonds, but it also turns diamonds into dust”. So, no pressure.