When I spoke to Sara R about the situation on Tuesday I did not relize I had spoken to someone who is a whirl wind of action. By 9:30 my time, she had ulookarmless and myself set up a sidewalk sale of little sketches I had done. I wanted to say thank you and muse in my amazement for a few moments.
So here was the situation. My husband and I had saved money for emergencies and my tuition for the spring. I had started the paralegal courses this summer after the results of my placement test put me 3 points from perfect. I had done much research on this path online and interviewing a old friend who is a lawyer. That conversation lasted hours. I had asked if she thought law school at my age was a good idea. She told me I could do anything I thought was right for me. Then she asked me if I was doing it for just the prestige? Before I could speak she said she asked this because she regrets going to law school. Partly because she lives in Chicago where lawyers are a dime a dozen. Partly because she went into real estate law since she refuses to do foreclosures and does only closings and such has seen her private shingle pay fall. She told me that she regrets not staying a paralegal. She was even driving over to Indiana to interview for paralegal positions but hitting road blocks because of her shingle. "How do we know you will stick around." etc.
After speaking to my friend it gave me food for thought. Ok so what if my cousins have their Law degrees from Boston College and a little place in Cambridge, Mass.
Am I going to spend my life competing with them. Who gives a flying leap what my family thought. I know that I had attended graduate school on free rides not once but twice. I know that they are 100's of thousands of dollars in debt and one cousin's mother put a 3rd mortgage on her house so he could go. I need a profession that wasn't hit or miss. I need a career that will support my family and that will allow me to do something to help my railings in the past. Back during the 8 Bush years I was threatening to go into constitutional law to challenge so many bills.
I digressed. Anyway, I took this fall semester off to help a single mother. She had no child support coming in and could not afford care. The days she needed child care clashed with the days that the classes I could take. The paralegal program offers classes between 4-10 pm. No day classes. I hated it, but this person gave me a roof over my head when we were homeless, and she was struggling. I promised myself that this spring I would take as many classes that I was allowed and saved accordingly. I put a buffer in for emergencies. Well Thanksgiving came, 2 days off without pay, that was planned for, then 3 teeth became infected and I looked like Quesimoto (sic). The ER doctor freaked and wanted me to go into the hospital for sepsis. Oh no I talked her out of it and was giving powerful antibiotics. There goes a bit of our buffer. I ended up getting my face drained. Ok that is fine our buffer is gone but with the up coming checks we will be right as rain. LOL. I had taken account a couple days off for the holidays. Well my husband's work had decided to reward the contractors for their hard work, in their words. The reward was extra time off for the holiday's and a 6 dollar sandwich. Beat head against wall.
So my tuition could be broken down into 3 payments: 1st will be due the 10th or my classes will be dropped, it will be 1/3rd of the total plus 30 dollars. Thanks to the members here the 7 angels I am almost there for the first payment. It has given me a springboard, a ton of rungs up the ladder to get there. I am currently working on ways to put off things to make up the difference and grateful that I don't have that far to go.
So here is what my schedule will look like.
LAW 125 001 13177 Introduction to Legal Research 01/23/12 - 05/18/12 M 6:00pm - 6:50pm
LAW 134 002 13178 Introduction to Legal Technology 01/18/12 - 05/18/12 W 7:00pm - 9:50pm
LAW 205 002 10445 Legal Analysis and Writing 01/23/12 - 05/18/12 M 7:00pm - 9:50pm
I am going to have to wait for the department head to get back so I can see if I can get a pre-rec waiver for Civil Litigation. So I can get into that class as well.
I wanted to write something elegant as a thank you and I sure will soon. BUT FOR NOW I COULD HUG YOU ALL, AND I AM NOT A TOUCHY FEELY PERSON WITH ANYONE BUT THE HUSBAND AND KIDS. OH AND A BIG FAT KISS TO SARA R AND ULOOKARMLESS.