Discerning the Call to Law School
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Dear Sweet Sisters,
It’s not every day that your optometrist gives you a piece of earth shattering advice.
Per usual, he began his litany of questions about my life and my future plans. My naïve college junior self boasted of my grand plans to go on to law school directly after undergrad. He immediately stopped what he was doing, looked me dead in the eyes, and said, without skipping a beat, 'That time will be hard. You will watch all of your friends settle down and begin their lives. As they get jobs, get married, and begin having kids, you will still be in school. It will be painful. But it will all be okay.'
These past two years have been wearing, friends. I have tasted sweet victories, but only at the price of great sacrifice, namely pressing pause on “settling down” for three years at the Lord’s request. To summarize my sentiments about law school, I borrow the words of the great Abraham Lincoln:
'I have been many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction I had no where else to go.'
Most of my friends are in the working world, married or close to it, and expecting or have already had beautiful babies. To say that I don’t long for any or all of those things would be a bold-faced lie. You can’t deny the natural progression of life, folks.
Do I question if this decision was right? Almost every single day.
Do I wonder if my career choice will cost me the family I always dreamed of? Of course.
But just as the thought of being a wife and mother brings me great joy, so does the thought of practicing law in the Lord’s great name. He knows that. And that is all the assurance I need to keep on keeping on, despite my doubts and fears.
I’m sure you have your doubts too, friend, about whatever path you happen to be on. Step away to a quiet place and pray this simple prayer with all of your heart:
Jesus, You have not failed me yet, and I trust that You will not fail me still.
In the Fearless Love of Christ,
Sarah
Get to know Sarah
Sarah Prosser is a 23-year-old who just finished her second year of law school at Ave Maria School of Law in Naples, Florida.