Lawfully, Your Teacher

"I am dropping out of school," Julie said abruptly during their family dinner.

Her parents stared at her in utter silence, and she suddenly felt awkward sitting across from them. Seeming to leave a trance, her mother dropped her fork and stared at her in disbelief. Her father started carefully, "Sweetheart, what do you mean?"

She was home for the summer and planned to stay until she figured things out. Julie hated law school. It was a mistake. She was eager to start, but after spending a year with little sleep and learning all the material, she realized this was not a career for her. If she continued with this, she would be miserable for the rest of her life.

She loved kids, out of all things. She wanted to teach elementary school. Looking back, she realized that life always told her that early childhood education was for her. When completing her volunteer hours in school, she immediately thought about helping out in daycare. When choosing an elective in her undergrad, she tried to take classes associated with children. Even now, in law school, her specialization was going to be Family Law to protect children.

Letting go of the breath that she did not realize she was holding, she began, "Because I want to work with children."

"Isn't that why you choose to specialize in Family Law?" Her mom said. Her parent's expressions were photograph worthy right now.

"Y-yes. But I want to work with children directly. I want to teach and cannot do that as a lawyer. And anyway, law school is making me very unhappy."

"Julie," her father began, " You need two more years to complete your law degree. You are already in a substantial amount of student debt. Money that your mother and I cannot help you pay if you choose to live off a teacher's salary. You will be in a significant amount of student debt."

"I think you should finish your degree, too, Honey. You've come so far. If you still want to be a teacher when you finish, then you can. But wasting money like this is not okay." Her mother was trying to be reasonable.

Feeling a surge of emotions, Julie put down her fork. "I am unhappy. How can you be okay with that?"

"It's not that we are, Honey, but you committed to this. Sometimes you need to stick with a decision, even if it doesn't make you happy. Also, you have an undergrad in childhood education. So you can always teach when you are finished." Her dad said as a matter of fact.

"Teaching is a rewardless profession. You might like it at first, but after dealing with the administration and parents, it can quickly become overwhelming. Burnout is a serious thing. At least, if you have your law degree, you can work as a lawyer or in the County office as a lawyer. You need to consider the flexibility this law degree will offer you." Her mother finally said. "I think you must stick to your guns and finish your degree. If you choose to teach, you will be much better off than many other graduates entering the workforce. Especially the graduates recently finishing their undergrad."

Nodding and leaving the conversation, she decided to keep fighting for her law degree, even though it meant less and less to her every day. It was hard to go against one's calling, but her dad was right. She was already almost a hundred thousand dollars in student debt, and a starting teacher's salary in her state was under thirty-five thousand a year. She would be obligated to move back with her parents and not even afford to pay them a monthly rent.

She decided that she needed to keep on trying. There was already a lot of money invested into her education. Her parents were right, and she often heard that teachers would burn out after a few years or try to teach older children.

High school teachers in her state earned more, but there was also more competition for those positions. This law degree would give her an edge that others likely wouldn't have. And if she did not complete her degree, she would have to explain in her interview what she was doing this past year and why she quit her degree. The last thing she wanted to come off as was a quitter. Because she wasn't, she had not quit on anything in her life. She loved challenges and proving people wrong.

Maybe school was burning her out. The first year of law school was the weed-out period. The classes were so intense with material that students would drop out each week. By the end of her third year, she was told that half of her first-semester class would meet her at graduation. The other half would drop out.

But she wasn't a quitter. She refuses to quit.

After helping her parents with the dishes and making her way upstairs, she sat on her fluffy purple comforter in thought. Finally, she decided that she needed to stay in school. This is because if she calculated right, she would have more edge than everyone else. She was sure that she would become a teacher. There was no doubt in her. However, if one day in the future she realizes this is not for her anymore, she will have options, which is more than most can say. That alone made her smile. She could still come out on top. She would not see herself as lost or a failure.

Opening her laptop, she went to her emails, where the instructions for Monday's first day of her internship were. She needed to be there by 8 am, and it was in a Family Law office focusing on cases tied to the Department of Children and Families. She updated her calendar and noted what she would have to bring for her first day. She was ready.

She knew one thing, and that was that she would be unstoppable.