“You’d be an idiot not to…”
Just had a conversation this week with a colleague who used that statement and it took me back.
Back to a turning point in my own life.
I was a high school counselor in Orlando, Florida. And my district’s interpretation of No Child Left Behind turned my previously meaningful life-influencing job into a glorified paper pusher. I have a strong need to make a difference. I was on the quick road to burnout.
School counseling was a good mommy job. And I found great fulfillment at times. But it wasn’t my childhood dream. One of my eighth-grade teachers told me that I needed to be a lawyer, and I believed her. I started college still believing I would become a lawyer. But love, marriage, children, and life’s circumstances happened.
About the time I was burning out in school counseling, I got a newspaper from my undergrad alma mater. It announced the opening of a law school with full scholarships to high performing applicants.
When my husband got home from work, I shared the article and asked “What do you think?”
He replied, “You’d be an idiot not to apply.”
“But we’d have to move to Virginia.”
“And?….”
(And the most supportive husband in the world award goes to…)
I took the LSATs, rounded up transcripts, wrote essays, and compiled the massive portfolio necessary to apply for law school. I got the scholarship (Woo hoo!).
My husband left his dream job at Walt Disney World, got a job with GE and we moved to Virginia.
Now I get to make a lasting difference helping families lifeguard their legacies. And with what I’ve learned about the importance of this work, I’d be an idiot not to.