My QLC

[Legaldream]

Hi everyone

I'm new to this board so I guess I should expose my own quarter life crisis. I am 26 years old and have hopes to attend law school in 2008 at the ripe age of 27. I've been planning to go to law school now for a couple of years but when LSAT/application season roles around, fear takes a hold of me and instead of jumping on the ship, I let it go by. I already have on record that I skipped two LSAT exams, I know, crazy. I've also missed a couple of my LSAT prep classes this year(paid a good penny for that) and the test is this coming June!!!! Some one shake me!!!!!!

The other thing that is causing QLC in my life is that I recently resigned from a job that was awful. I had to deal with coworker(s)/supervisors that were shady, underhanded and outright discriminated against me. The job was in social services and in addition to the bad treatment, I realize it is not a field for me. I really want to go into law and become a lawyer but I feel like a combination of fear, laziness and a lack of self confidence gets in the way. I felt pretty confident in college-and did well in school- but, since being in the working world for five years, I feel like my confidence has been slowly chipped away. Part of it, I guess is because I did not go after any jobs in my major. I was a Japanese major but decided by senior year I did not want to go to Japan or use my Japanese language skills at all. I now regret this decision because I was really good at it by the end of college( but after spending a year abroad there, I could not see myself going back or working with anything related to Japan. I guess I had Japan fatigued. Anyway, I was a bit aimless after college.Tried to go away with the Peace Corps but kept getting delayed with assignment placement. Temp for a little while, went to teach for a year in Mexico, came back, did AmeriCorps, and eventually worked six months is a low level social service job that was not a good fit for me. This might sound like wow- but I feel like I did not make any major contributions to any of these jobs nor was a great passion ignited in me. I realize I'm no mother Teresa.

The biggest QLC for me besides the above stuff is that I made mistakes with money and now I am stuck with no job and no unemployment assistance because I resigned(don't regret the resignation though:0 ).

I have a desire to relocate down south to be with my significant other(and eventually go to school down there next year), hopefully in a couple of months like this September I could move. I currently live at home and despite all of the experiences I've had since college, I don't feel like an independent professional ready to take on the world. I'm a QLC statistic who wish she took some personal financial planning courses.:mad: :mad:

Thanks for letting me get my QLC off my chest.

Maybe I'll say the hell with it. Charge fearlessly ahead with the application process, take out a loan to relocate to the south to be with my SO and look for stop gap work while I'm down there. That will take a lot of courage and confidence but just talking/thinking about it makes me feel excited!!!!!!!!!!!

Peace out

[sandman1981]

Welcome to QLC,

1st how did you decide Law school?
If you think you & your SO needs to move then take the leap of faith.
Focus on everything you have now. I know it may not seem like alot, believe me it's more then you think.
Get out a pen & paper. On one sheet of paper write everything you're grateful for.
On another sheet of paper write your GOALS.
For example Move to ????? by 6/07 , have a new job by 7/07, Start college by 08/08.
when you're done share with SO.

I hope this helps, look forward to hearing from you.

[Adam Strange]

Welcome to the boards. I don’t have much to add, except that you’re not alone – I know of plenty of a) foreign language majors unsure about their degree and b) people who are very indecisive about law school. It seems to be something that could be a rescue vessel or another plunge.

[Legaldream]

Hello,

I haven't checked the boards recently.

To answer your question Sandman, I decided on law school because I hope afterwards I can hang my own shingle out and do my own thing. I'm not a hundred percent sure what type of law I want to do and I don't know if this is what I want in my heart.

And you are right Adam Strange, it's very difficult to use a language degree(especially since I am no longer interested in the language I studied)

All in all, I'm trying to stay positive but my life has taken a negative turn this past week. I'm freaking out because I haven't been really studying for the LSAT and the test is a month away, I have no job but a ton of bills I need to pay. I think me and my SO are broken up but then again I do not know since he is refusing to take my calls. I know, I need to breathe but it's funny how one week can change the course of your whole life.

Thanks again

[winneythepooh7]

Just wanted to chime in that not all human service gigs suck. It really depends on the working environment you are in, and even the population. As an attorney, I would imagine you would also be dealing with all kinds of people and all kinds of bureacracy as well---same stuff that goes on in the human services field. Are you really sure that's what you even want to do? I have my Master's in Social Work and did a year long internship in a legal services clinic. I also have several lawyer friends and it's not always easy either. Just wanted to give you some food for thought.

[Legaldream]

Hi winneythepooh7

Thanks for the insight. With the law degree I hope to open my own small law firm. I want to work directly with clients and basically shape the firm in a way where I can earn a deceant living, feel proud of my work but not go crazy with an over the top schedule. I've heard a lot of negative things about practicing big law, and I don't have an interest in working in government or legal aid because I know there is a level of politics i don't feel comfortable with. To tell you the truth I feel like I am lazily carrying myself over into the field of law because I don't think there is one thing that I am particulary passionate about. When I was in college I was so passionate about Japanese language and culture and I planned to permaneantly move there after I graduate, return to the US for more education and then move back . For a number of reasons I decided against it and grew tired of Japanese. I even reached the point where I couldn't stand hearing the langauage spoken. What happens when a passion dies, I don't know........

[Legal(b)eagle]

While opening your own practice is a worthy goal, you will not be qualified to do this right out of law school. I know you probably won't listen to this but I am going to say it anyway- law school teaches you how to think/act like a lawyer but does not teach you anything practical about practicing law. You will need a minimum of 2-5 years at a firm to learn how to file motions, draft pleadings, essentially handle cases, before you will be competent to go out on your own... and malpractice insurance is very very expensive for young solo's

just my $0.02...

[winneythepooh7]

While opening your own practice is a worthy goal, you will not be qualified to do this right out of law school. I know you probably won't listen to this but I am going to say it anyway- law school teaches you how to think/act like a lawyer but does not teach you anything practical about practicing law. You will need a minimum of 2-5 years at a firm to learn how to file motions, draft pleadings, essentially handle cases, before you will be competent to go out on your own... and malpractice insurance is very very expensive for young solo's

just my $0.02...

I think it's the same thing in several fields. I see A LOT of 18-22 year-olds wanting to go to social work school, get out at 23 and 24 (with no real work experience) wanting to open up their own "private practice". Yeah, good luck with that. Most people in their 50's who do this struggle with it.