The worst reason to go to law school

Or do anything really.

I played badminton completely humiliated myself on Halloween. An actual tournament of embarrassment if you will. (I’m athletic, I love tennis, I can hold my own in most sports; something about badminton brings out extreme lack of coordination. Particularly embarrassing while donning a costume.) Anyway, not the point, just setting the scene.

I spent a big part of the day talking to friends of friends about what they do, why they hate it, and what it is they really want to do. Wait, that’s not entirely true. I would have loved to talk to them about what they want to do. What we really talked about is what they think they should do. 

I had a handful of conversations with people who are a couple of years into corporate careers very similar to mine. Predictably, they’re starting to feel the teensiest bit restless. And ahoy, this moment is pivotal. Because one guy’s boredom is somehow pushing him to consider law school. You know, because that will be so different and interesting. Not. At. All.

One more conversation involved a GMAT score rehash and business school aspirations. And another with someone who thinks maybe she should just walk away from it all and join the Peace Corps. De-ja-freaking-vu. Across the board.

Okay, so this was only one conversation and admittedly I don’t know these people very well. These might be three awesome decisions. In fact, I’m pretty sure the guy going to business school is chasing a heart-pumping dream. So what I have to say isn’t really specific to them at all…

It’s just my knee-jerk reaction to people getting too practical before they ever admit to themselves what it is they actually want. I just want to shake them, and scream that you can actually do work you enjoy. Which will make me seem like a bit of a basket case, and maybe not someone you want to be taking advice from. So I usually try to restrain myself. Sometimes it doesn’t work. 

Anyway, when we’re considering law or business school without any actual passion driving the idea, I wonder if there’s a part of us that’s thinking:

Gosh, what I’m doing now is so incredibly boring that if I don’t lock myself in, I might run away and do something rash. Like, maybe follow my heart or something. So instead, I’ll saddle myself with student loans and guilt in the hopes that it will squish that teeny voice in my head that keeps crying out for some glimmer of that excitement, passion, fulfillment junk people are always raving about.

And what I’m really trying to say is that the worst reason to go to law school is that you just don’t know what else to do.  Two of the smartest people I know went this route, and dropped out before the holiday break their first year. Not because law school itself was hard, but because anything is hard when your heart’s not in the game.

I’m not saying you have to have your entire career mapped out, or that your vision has to be written in ink before you take a single step. Sometimes you’ll only know the next right thing. But it should actually feel like the right thing. And I have a hunch these kind of decisions feel more like the practical thing. Blech. Or even the escape thing. Which can be attractive, but ultimately also kind of empty.

These conversations reminded me of an important step in helping anyone find their right thing: talking them out of law school, business school, clown school. Of course I’m kidding. I could totally get behind clown school. And yeah, I spent a halloween badminton tournament talking about career paths. Love this stuff. On that note, thoughts? Do you ever threaten to go through with a business school fall back plan?