Wandering Thoughts

I tend to be a determined person - one who approaches life in a fairly matter-of-fact manner. Granted, I will be the first to admit that I have never done things in the accepted way. Let's compare my schooling experiences with that of an ex-boyfriend from high school (information learned courtesy of classmates.com, thank you very much). Allow me a small trip back in time...

At the end of my sophomore year, my mom and soon-to-be stepfather decided to live together as an experiment. Since my stepfather is sooooo addicted to the beach, he can't live farther from the beach than 10 minutes by car. So my mom and my sister and I packed up and moved to a small beach-side town in Southern California.

Junior year starts and across the classroom, I saw him. After much teen-aged flirting and angst, Soccer Boy (so nicknamed because of his favorite sport) and I became an accepted couple. Of course, since this is my life, it can't possibly be that simple. We were AP students, so we were somewhat removed from the rest of the junior class. Our AP section of the junior class was about 60 and it was sort of like a junior class within a junior class. We knew the other people existed but the important people were the other AP students. So junior year, I pretty much dated Soccer Boy and studied alone or studied with Soccer Boy. Then we broke up and senior year I didn't study at all in outright rebellion.

Graduation from high school - Soccer Boy went on to college and I could not face more book learning after 12 years. So while he went to college and then on to law school, I took a much needed break and figured things out for myself while working a variety of low-paying jobs. About the time he graduated from law school, I decided that it was time to go to college. I got through undergraduate school and took a year or two off in order to recuperate.

Flash forward 3 years - I apply to law school, get accepted, and take my introductory classes with flying colors. I then discover that I'm in charge of putting myself through graduate school, not my parents. It was an ugly discovery. Directly after that little shockwave, I learned that the company I worked for had been sold and everyone was losing their job at the company within six months. So much for starting law school then.

Flash forward to now - Roomie and I finally have the money and income to send me to law school. I'm registered, tuition is paid, and my books are bought. Books are courtesy of mom, who is willing to help out in "little" ways. This particular little way was $600. Thanks Mom!

Back to the original topic - me doing things in a different order than the accepted manner - Soccer Boy has now been an attorney for 10 years and I'm just beginning law school. How upset am I about this? I've been thinking about his a lot lately - and decided that it doesn't bother me so much. First, while my law school may not be as prestigious or well-known as his, it is still a law school and we both had to take the same test to get accepted. Second, no matter how long it takes me, I will still be the first attorney on either side of my family. Third, it's OK that it's taken me a lot longer to get where I am today - I had to do things my way in order to be true to myself.