Interview Transcript


Part 1: Football Story


Stef 0:00

Hi! I am Stef from Soccer Girl Goals, and we are back with our Career Series. Today we'll be speaking with Cheng Lynn, who is a lawyer practicing in Singapore and also represents Singapore Law Society, also known as LawSoc in football. Lynn, I know that as a lawyer, your time is very precious. So thank you for giving us your time today.

Lynn 0:19

Thank you for having me

Stef 0:21

And thank you for not charging us [laughs]

Lynn 0:23

No, no certainly not [laughs]

Stef 0:25

Okay, let's quickly get started. In this first segment, we'll find out more about how Lynn started playing football. So, Lynn, maybe you can tell us a little bit about yourself first . So like what you are doing now.

Lynn 0:37

Okay. Thanks very much again, for having me. I do hope that I will be of some use to the people who are watching this video today. Okay, so my name is Lynn. I am a third year associate- Litigation Associate in a midsize firm in Singapore. So the work I do generally pertains to civil litigation. I do play soccer for the Law Society team. I came across them while I was a law student in SMU. Prior to that, I did play some... I did play football for my JC. So actually, my footballing years has been around maybe 9? 8 to 9 years they're about. Currently, I'm on rehab from a torn ACL. So I haven't been in action recently. But hopefully I can get back to that soon. So I got started with football in JC but I did always want to try it. I have always seen my family watching football, and it just seemed quite fun to kick a ball. So actually, my interests started as a young kid, but never really had the opportunity in secondary school to participate in this except for PE lessons, which then gave me an insight to football, and also introduced me to the JC team who came and gave— I do recall, the JC team came when we were in Sec four to give a soccer training. And that's how I got introduced to them. And then I joined them for trainings, I think, towards the end of Sec four? And then after that I joined the team in JC one, and then that's when it all started,

Stef 2:33

Then what do you love about football?

Lynn 2:36

Now that you've asked this, I think it's quite hard to pinpoint exactly what, but I do remember enjoying the feeling of just kicking a ball, running around the field. And I mean, I was watching TV, football on TV. I used to think that all those sliding tackles and those free kicks were very fun, very cool. And all those saves by goalkeepers, they're also quite impressive. And it's just, it just seemed like a very fun game to me. People will say, "oh I don't understand why are these people running— eleven people, sorry, twenty-two people running after a ball." But actually, there's a lot of, I would say there's a lot of strategy and thinking too, it's not just people running after the ball. And I think what I do, like about football is that, you know, it's actually quite possible to accomplish a lot with a team. You need— you don't need to have the best skills, don't need to have the best players around, but you can work within what you have, you strategize, and then you play as a team. I've had some matches where we successfully managed to, you know, hold them to a draw, or even edge our win. So that's why I actually love football, you know, I mean, probably applies to other sports as well. But for my experience it's football. Anything can be done. It doesn't mean that once you are deemed to be the weaker team you're bound to lose.

Stef 4:10

What was some of the challenges you face in your football journey?

Lynn 4:16

Wow, quite a few. Mostly happened when I was a student, actually. So first and foremost, it's actually getting to the sport, getting to be able to play the sport was in fact a tall ordeal. I remember when I first wanted to join, I don't think it was very— my parents didn't really think that I should be doing this. You know, they never thought that girls could be playing or should be playing and— and whether the training would be manageable. Plus generally, sport CCAs tend to have quite a hectic training schedule. So I do remember, when we were— when I was trying to get into the team for— as a JC one student prior to that I, I went out and secretly bought some football boots, like, from some dingy shop somewhere just so that I could try and I couldn't let people know. But after that, when I joined the team in JC I realized that most of the girls face the same problem actually hiding this from their parents or, you know, trying to appease their parents that, you know, just because they play this and just because they get tanner, you know, nothing's going to change. They're still going to study, they're still going to be on top of things. So that's the first one actually getting approval to play the game. But after that, they realize that, you know, I have passion for it, I really wanted to do it. And so they just like, okay, they just relented. And then they supported me like, towards, I mean, throughout my footballing journey as a student. So moving on to other challengers, as a student, certainly the difficulty was with managing studies. As a JC student, it was quite, I would say scary. Because the big matches were, I remember, I think, middle of the year. And at that point, some people were gunning up for A Levels already. And so the teachers were also getting— putting some pressure on us. I remember there were like, common tests, right? CTs, common tests. So obviously, I flunked it! I don't even know what's going on. That was quite tough, because I remember we were training quite intensely, I think around three times a week, and every time when I go home— just very tired. Like, my whole body is just like shutting down already. And I remember lying in bed with just an ice pack, here and there, just like not able to physically come up to sit up and study. And because that was also— we're gunning up for, I think, A Division. So we were really putting our heart and soul into it. So my mind wasn't really switched on for school or rather I thought I was switched on, but probably not as switched on as I could have been. Having said that, however, eventually A Levels happened. And I survived. Through a skin on my teeth, I managed to pull through painfully. So that was the one-off incident in A Levels. Then came uni, which was more like a constant pain. Because for four years, every semester, you expect finals that contribute to your grades. And every semester, there will be a tournament. So then, that was also quite tiring. There were a lot of readings to do in law school, tremendous amounts of reading, I don't think I actually went through all of them. Yeah, probably— probably didn't. Really too much to read. So there was a bit of a struggle as well. I remember going to the library very early, trying to get in some readings before class started. Because then at night, I had training. So I'll be in school from morning till when the class ended, then after that in the evening, go for soccer. And then go home, wash, rinse, repeat. So at the end of— at the back of my mind was always like, will my grades be able to make it? Especially since law school is quite competitive, your grades matter. And also, there's a minimum requirement for you to hit. If not, you will not be able to take the bar exam. And so I think those were one of the more significant challenges I faced while trying to juggle both soccer as well as my other commitments as well. Yeah.


Stay tuned for our second segment: Career in Football