Omar, 26
“A lack of fulfillment in my previous career and wanting to chase my dream of becoming a lawyer led me to law school. I gave up my old career, financial security, health/dental insurance for a while, living near my family, my car, eventually my relationship, my retirement plan, and disposable income, to do so.”
| Getting back into the “swing” of things… | Treated law school like my job, which meant I was willing to put at least 40 hours a week toward it. It was actually easy to get back into reading and studying as my work ethic was really improved by working for 4 years. |
| Biggest shock of coming back to school… | Nothing was really a huge shock. |
| Greatest challenges in law school… | Anxiety and stress, lack of an income, some health issues, being homesick, some personal issues including 2 breakups. |
| Greatest resources… | I relied on my close friends, working out to relieve stress, my previous girlfriend Sam also took a big weight off by handling many of the house chores. |
| Law school and your personal life… | Not very good as a 1L, I had almost no social life. Second semester 2L and as a 3L I have learned where I can cut back and learn to enjoy myself and not spend all day reading. Some of that is natural as classes become more manageable, but also I just got better at learning how far I need to push myself. |
| Your Story/Advice… | I’d tell others that law school has shown me that there is basically an unlimited amount of sacrifice you have to endure in order to get through it and get through it successfully. I was ready to sacrifice a lot, but it just never stopped and that was difficult and challenging, sometimes rewarding, and sometimes it seemed unnecessary. And I think being older and having a prior career, moving across country, etc., you have to sacrifice more than the career student because you have more to lose if it doesn’t work out. |
First Gen JD 