I started this blog back in 2009, when I was a twenty-one-year-old junior in college. Back when I thought I knew what I wanted, and when I thought what I wanted was to be a lawyer – or at least to go to law school.
I stopped writing.. a while ago. I guess around the time I realized what a scary place the legal market is and around the time that I decided to defer law school in order to join AmeriCorps*VISTA instead.
I’m writing again now because I am twenty-three and have no idea what I want to be when I grow up. I couldn’t tell you if it is to be in the law or to run from it. I couldn’t tell you what I would do if I didn’t go to law school in August. My guess? Be employed and happy and have a vague plan to eventually go back to school to get a degree that I’d have a targeted use for.
What do you need to know about me?
1. In 8th grade, I had to do a “career research” project. I chose lawyering, and I said to my study buddy, “This sounds terrible and I will never do it.”
2. Senior year of high school, I thought I was going to be a violin performance major. By January 2006, I changed my mind and decided I wanted to be employed, so I chose to major in English instead. (Oh, cruel irony.)
3. Freshman year of college, I decided I was going to be a lawyer. I don’t remember why. I declared a second major in Political Science (because isn’t that what lawyer-wannabes do?) and chugged along happily for three years.
4. Junior year of college, I took the LSAT and did well. Hello, six-figure salaries!
5. Senior year of college, I realized that the legal market sucks and law school is expensive. Hello, six-figure debt!
6. First year out of college, I realized that law school is expensive, Biglaw jobs pay big because hours and stress are big, and oh heeey, I might not want to do much lawyering at all, even non-Biglaw lawyering.
So here I am, sitting on a really big scholarship to a really good school with serious plans to not go. Now, or maybe at all. In the meantime, I’m facing a looming deadline to lock in an apartment in a primo location next to my maybe law school, and I feel obligated to make the decision to go or not go by the time I get that “Welcome off the waitlist!” email.
Maybe resuscitating this blog will force my thoughts onto a screen and help me make a decision. Or, you know, maybe it’ll get crazy popular and I’ll be able to make serious bank on ads and I’ll never need to go to law school to have even a shot at a decent income.
Tagalongs on my decision-making journey are welcome, especially current law students and practicing attorneys with valuable insight.