“Do you think that she woke up one morning and said: ‘I think I’ll go to law school today.’” Yes, that is actually how it worked.
I was 18 years old, and in my first semester of my undergraduate program enrolled as a math major. It took me approximately one month to figure out that a future in math was not for me. But what was I going to do? I had my whole life carefully figured out at the age of 17. I was going to be a math major, become an actuary (insert snort-laugh here), and marry that tall, blue eyed, skinny guy I met at summer camp. (Spoiler alert: only one of the foregoing actually occurred).
So, I went to bed with a problem, and woke up with a solution: drop math, become a history major, get a job at a law firm, marry Jeff, go to law school. (Spoiler alert: all of the foregoing actually occurred).
Even with my major change, I managed to graduate from my undergraduate program with honors in 3 years. The only thing I didn’t graduate with? A decent LSAT score.
I was crushed.
But, I regrouped. If I couldn’t go to law school straight out of college, I was going to work for a year at a law firm, marry Jeff, and get my LSAT score up.
The day after I moved back home from college, I interviewed at a job as an entry level legal assistant and got the job that same day. The next day, I began working at the job that would be my home for the next 7.5 years. So much happened at that job which will be unpacked in subsequent blog posts, but at the time, this was what was right for me.
I finally made the decision to go to law school after interacting with a few attorneys and said to myself, “if these dumb dumbs can do it, so can I.” So, I threw myself into the law school admissions rollercoaster very late in the game. After an unbelievable series of events (which I will share at a later time – but for now I will say “Not I, But God”), I got my admission letter to my first choice school, FIU Law and was admitted into the part-time evening program.
So why the evening program? Well, truth be told, I couldn’t afford to go to school full time. Jeff and I had just gotten married and were financially independent. We both had jobs that paid beans, but we were employed which at that time at the heals of the Great Recession was such an incredible thing! Jeff had a number of student loans and we just couldn’t make it work without me working. The ABA has some pretty strict rules about working and going to school, so the only way “around” those rules was to enroll in night school.
The first two years were grueling. I had class up until about 11PM for almost 2 years. I was also working full time. I had nothing left to give at the end of the day to my marriage, my family, or my friends. I missed out on a lot (so, so much).
But you know what? It was all worth it.
I don’t regret it one bit. I grew so much professionally and intellectually during those years that I would not do one thing differently (except, go to church more). I left everything that I had in the halls of FIU Law. Although I was an evening student, I was able to serve on the SBA for 1.5 years, act as a research assistant, and even got to start a scholarly journal with my friends called The World Arbitration and Mediation Review which is still circulated today – all of this while working 35 – 40+ hours per week. Oh, and did I mention that I graduated with honors and passed the bar on my first attempt?
I am beyond proud of what I accomplished. My journey to become an attorney was TOUGH, full of tears, late nights, lack of sleep, and lots of caffeine. But, anything worth having is worth fighting for.
This is the abbreviated story of how I got here. There are so many things that happened in between which I will share with you.
If you are currently contemplating doing something because it’s hard and will demand your time, just do it. Don’t live your life with regrets. There were 100+ reasons why I shouldn’t have gone to law school, but there are 1000+ reasons why I am glad that I did.
The Lady Esquire 