Legally BOD

“Did you always know you wanted to go to law school?'“

Absolutely NOT! lol.

One thing I knew for sure when I moved to Australia in May was that that I wanted to go back to school here. And I wasn’t just looking to take a few courses, I mean I really, really wanted to dive back in deep and challenge myself in a BIG way.

As much as I love training, learning about the body and helping others with their fitness journeys’ it was starting to feel a little repetitive after 10 years in the business. I definitely want to keep teaching some form of movement forever and ever and I also am looking forward to a whole next additional chapter.

I’ll do a post one day about the side of the fitness business that nobody talks about … but for now I’ll just sum it up and say I personally was tired of using my body so much and I felt like it was time to go back to school to stretch my head, not just my hamstrings.

I moved to here thinking - perfect, I’ll go into medicine. Totally a natural progression. Everyone will understand, everyone will be proud of me and happy for me. I’ll get to help people, it will be an intellectual challenge. This is my path, 1000% what I’m meant to be doing.

I went to med school info nights. Reached out to friends of friends who had gone to medical schools in Australia. I applied to three schools, registered to write the GAMSAT (medical entry test in Australia) and was all set to go.

Then the nitty gritty truth whisper details crept up in my head. Six - but actually more like eight more years of school. And $80,000+ per year. YIKES. And my chances of actually getting in were super slim to none. I had decent marks in undergrad, but at the time my sights weren’t set on future academic goals, I did what I needed to do to graduate with distinction - totally decent low 80s average, but nothing academically extraordinary.

Then it started to hit me … if I was actually looking for something different then wouldn’t medicine just be more of the same? On a much larger, more critical scale of course - but fundamentally I’d be working with humans to help them with their health and wellness journeys … and I’m already doing that. Yes I’d have fun drugs to give people, but really this path of medicine was a bit of a carbon copy paste to what I’m already doing and loving.

And most importantly was I was doing it partly for some kind of external ego validation… not actually because deep, deep down medicine was what I really wanted to do. Light bulb!

So now what?

Ugh. I had NO idea.

I set out on a fact finding mission. I went to the University of Sydney open house night because I saw their ad on the bus and decided it would be a good place to look into other programs.

The first info session I forced myself to sit through was for an MBA, I left feeling exactly the same way as when I went in, just not for me. I’ve owned a business and if I wanted more business experience I would just go work for a business.

Next…

Then I sat in on a few post grad PHD science programs but nothing was catching me.

Next…

Then came law.

Hmmm.

Law.

I sat down in a room full of super keen, super competitive, super over achievers, super thinkers and felt like I was home.

Here’s what I love about a law degree: it’s versatile. Unlike many of the other programs I researched I feel like law will be a TOTAL shock to my system … exactly what I’m looking for. A massive intellectual challenge. And it could open a lot of new doors in my future.

I have no idea what type of law I’ll ultimately end up practicing but I do know I can be super persuasive, I’m really quite great at telling people what to do (lol!) and I love the idea of intellectually dominating thoughts and arguments - and having that challenge right back at me. SO fun.

I left the session and applied to law school right away - with hopeful optimism but zero expectation of actually getting in.

PAUSE: because I’m sure I’ll get asked this question. No. The University of Sydney and University of New South Wales - two of the best schools in Australia in Sydney do not require an LSAT. They do require a personal statement, short answer questions, a resume, a portfolio of past work and past transcripts -hello high school (Can’t believe I got a 67% in Spanish!! Still haunts me…).

Fast forward to a week later and to my COMPLETE shock I got in! Holy smokes. To my even further shock I applied to two other Law schools here and I also go in to them too. The universe felt like it was saying loud and clear - “This is your path right now, GO FOR IT!”

I start school on February 11.

Feeling a little like Benjamin Button, like I’m doing this life thing all backwards. Don’t most people leave law to become Pilates and yoga teachers?! Haha! But so far through a lot of this life I’ve taken the road backwards and less travelled, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Wish me luck as I totally channel my inner Elle Woods - except I’m missing Bruiser Woods (need a dog!) and I’m totally not chasing a man, instead I’m chasing my best me. But I do love pink and agree that exercise gives you endorphins; endorphins make you happy and happy people just don't shoot their husbands!