Law School, Schmaw School

When we first decided that we were going to do the Law School thing many of our friends and acquaintances (online and off) were quick to jump up and offer their opinion about the hardships of such a course.

One woman went so far as to say that her husband and her were the only surviving married couple out of his entire law year.

We hesitated. It wasn't sounding pretty bad. We had had a very rough year just before we left and were (I'll admit to you all) seeing a counselor. Was law school really the course we needed to take if we were to save our marriage?

Well, we decided to try our luck with this first year and see what became of it, if it was horrible we'd quit and go back to engineering.

We were, however, banking on a couple of things when we made this decision.

1) Law school couldn't be as bad as a war-time stint in Iraq. Could it?

2) Ralexwin had just endured more than his fair share of mathematics and physics, surely another type of thinking couldn't be that hard.

Our faith in each other has paid off and I'm here to say... Law school is a walk in the park! This isn't hard! This isn't grueling! This is fun.

Hard is when you don't see your husband for a year and a half, or in his case your children and wife.

Hard is when you spend half of the first 5 years of marriage apart.

Hard is when you miss the first steps and first words of your first two children.

Hard is having to deal with all of that in your 6th and 7th years of marriage.

Grueling? Ha!

Grueling is taking enough math and science classes to be 6 credits shy of a double major in engineering and mathematics.

Grueling is when your entire peer group goes on to the next year of school while you go off to Iraq.

Grueling is when you (as the spouse) realize you've never even heard of something called Statics and your loving husband has to take a year of it!

Grueling is those math problems he was always doing that took an hour each (at least).

No, law school isn't difficult for us. It's not difficult for him. It gives us something to talk about, a new line of thinking. It gives us a broader focus for our discussions and widens our minds to the possibility of new ideas. I say we because I've learned a lot this year too. In fact we have found that all of this has worked in our favor and our marriage has thrived in a way it has never before.

So whenever I hear someone start up about just how hard things are I like to say:

"I think sending my husband off to war was the hardest thing I've ever done. So I'm pretty sure we can handle this."

It always quiets them down.

Comments

IB said…
Good for you guys! And thanks for sharing your perspective.

BTW- love the new groovy blog-design
Jennifer said…
That's wonderful! I'm glad for you.
Ethan said…
In the last year I have adopted a new motto for my life. "Live outside of your comfort zone." This has been very difficult but since I have been doing this I have grown immensely, started accomplishing "self actualization" and I find my life so much more rewarding.

We live in a society that encourages us to relax and be entertained as if that is the path to happiness. Unfortunately too many people in our society, including me, are unhappy for no apparent reason. Perhaps because the journey is more important than the destination. When we think we've arrive we are left asking "What now?"

Anyway, I am very happy for you and the growth that you and the family are going through. I hope that you'll continue to challenge yourselves. Good Luck!

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