Good choice.

As a CEO of one of the largest oil & gas companies pointed out the other day, the US graduates 43,000 lawyers a year and only 430 petroleum engineers.

Which group does our citizens the most good?

If adventure is something you still crave, "youngsters" get some unusual duty in unusual places sometimes. Of course after your old and grey, they stick you behind a desk...but have been known to jerk you out for special duties.

But within that profession, there are specialty areas that might be of interest.

But, there are other great things to do with your life, not all make a lot of money. One of my Grandsons, the oldest, who is going in the Navy after he graduates next year, wants (now) to be a U.S. Forest Ranger. Who know what he will want after four years in the Navy.

Your a little older than him, so you know that finding out what you want to do is hard and sometimes you have to just "follow your gut".

I was lucky, I went from the Army to replacing windshields to working for one of the largest corporations in the world. Within that giant, I had three jobs, one lasted two years, the next three years and the last 24.5 years. I enjoyed all three but loved the last job I had the most.

I don't know what I would have done if I had taken different paths, but I do know if I wasn't enjoying the work, I would quit and do something else.

Life is too short to spend it unhappy or at least that is what I've been told. I of course plan on living a long long time.

After all, I've got to hang around for Sweet Sarah, my most favorite, only GrandDaughter.

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

The problem with going to law school, is, well...you're a lawyer. You have soent considerable money, time, and effort, and then you will feel the need to capitalize on it, ot at least work in the field for a bit.

It's not like undergrad where you can change majors. You are in law school, and that's it. I know a lot of people who went to law school just to put off life. If you aren't burning to be a lawyer, then don't do it.

I think you made the right choice. You are still young and have had a lifetime of experience (like many of our parents and grandparents did after WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam), so if you have a dream job, or dream at all, do it now.

As I posted earlier, my law degree is useful only because I became (finally!) a patent attorney. At the age of 46, I finally discovered what I wanted to do in life.

I remain curious as to what you will end up doing. Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be done well by you.

My son, who you knew at TBS, even if at a distance (he was an SPC and later company XO for two companies), pinned on his oak leafs 1 July. He's now the XO for 1/10 (as a newbie major! You can't tell me that Rumsfeld is correct when he says we have enough active-duty types in the military). He will not be going back to Iraq this year, and next year he is due for his "B" billet. Who knows where that will take him? So, you are not the only one in the midst of changes.

Semper fi,

Chris Pastel
LtCol USMCR(Ret)

Good on you. I went straight from taking the bar to real estate development and I often wonder about those years in law school and the year casting about afterward and if I couldn't have gotten to where I am in a more effecient, less costly way; and I'm one of the happy ones of my law school friends. Many now had successful careers, except that they don't like them and feel stuck in them because of the debt. I still have the debt, but I love what I'm doing. Perhaps I could have done it without law.

As you were unsure about going to law school, that was the first sign you shouldn't have gone. Best of luck with whatever you try. It truly is a journey.