Is Law School for you? Reflections by the Legal Eagle Guy, Mr. Goff, and Rilke

Cant Get Right

This is a bit old and doesn't add a whole lot to this discussion that folks here won't already know, but I really like the simplicity of this part and I share this specifically to echo this sentiment:

If you know you have to be a lawyer, you should probably go to law school. . . If you aren't sure whether you want to be a lawyer or not, do not go to law school. Full stop. End of discussion. That's it.

My high school band director had a policy to do everything he could to dissuade any student considering majoring in music. I was a hardcore band nerd and knew I was going to major in music. I had already earned quite a large scholarship and was pretty much set. So, he pulled me out of rehearsal one day and we talked and he told me all the reasons I shouldn't major in music. He explained to me that if I could be talked out of it, if he could even plant a seed of doubt in my mind, that music was absolutely not for me. Music is a hard profession and most people that go into it are never able to make a living. I majored in English, and I'm forever grateful to Mr. Goff for that conversation.

I think Rainer Maria Rilke--the greatest poet most people have never heard of--put it best (as usual) in Letters to a Young Poet.

This above all--ask yourself in the stillest hour of your night: must I [be a lawyer]? Delve into yourself for a deep answer. And if this should be affirmative, if you may meet this earnest question with a strong and simple "I must," then build your life according to this necessity; your life even into its most indifferent and slightest hour must be a sign of this urge and a testimony to it.