Should we become lawyers? (Law school: an option.)

my mom Gail is just sitting with my
daughter Alexander off camera right now and I haven't even discussed this with Melissa yet but we did talk about this in the past on our list of options things to do one possibility was going to law school and then under that heading the other main thing target was going to law school in Canada of course also we could go to law school United States and become lawyers long-term um now there are a lot of details you could talk about there but one of the most fundamental is just that the process of attending law school was born and even the first step of studying for in writing the LSAT writing the law school entries name is born but it's a lot less boring if you're a couple going through it together so like even if now if we go back to we go back and go back to southern Ontario when we start studying for the LSAT I wouldn't want to that alone but I'm just saying you think oh great I'm gonna take three months and do algebra again and do all the really boring or the offset but if we did that together I mean that could be fun and encouraging just does it go yeah so Gail was really targeting me about when we met this morning once it figure out with our hotel the alternate path when you look at me getting a PhD or even me going to baking college and as opposed to going to law school and then where that puts us when we come out and the the series of steps going through in the pen so we have talked about the past in the past one of the reasons why I didn't really consider that a positive option before I met Melissa before we can a couple was that just when I looked at the number of years the amount of time you put in and what you get out of it at the end it did not compare favorably to me getting a PhD at all if you become a lawyer in Canada you make very little money especially in the first few years after you finish the degree that's this one target now with that being said I was talking to my dealing with my mom also among Gail you know it's true you and I are not really people who are super motivated by money when you think about the things that motivate us caring about politics Kangol social problems Carol making our opinions matter in a society whether in Canada or anywhere else you know or California another very viable you know option and this stage we could write both outside and could apply for law school in California we apply in applying isn't the problem we can apply for a bunch of law schools in both California and Canada for example I do think the law would be very rewarding for us in those ways in those impalpable ways and it's true we really are in a different different situation now as a couple then the situation I was in when I was looking at law school alone because a lot of that stuff is a drag I mean you know studying Chinese is a drag studying Chinese is a couple way more enjoyable you have this experience studying world LSAT for law school winter and stuff is a drag and then the other thing I talked through with guilt the other thing was-- will make really detail whether you do it in Canada the United States I mean I'm just being realistic we can apply for every law school but it seems to me likely we would probably live in some crappy college town we don't particularly want to live in while we're in law school so I kill you could be any end up living in Lethbridge you could be living in you know Mobile Alabama I'm you say whoever okay my mom my mom just says no no to Mobile Alabama Burlington Burlington Vermont as my mother suggests there's a good there's a good law school there's a good law school in Vermont apparently I want anyway but my point is you know we might be living somewhere L per tick Euler want to live to those couple of years but again doing that together is way more viable than doing it alone and then even in terms of your first couple of years out of law school so we Canada you go through a process called articling which is not quite the same as an internship but you know some you know you go through a period where you don't have that much choice and you're doing as a lawyer yeah anywhere you're underpaid and overworked again doing that together you know we more fun than doing it alone and then ultimately if we are two lawyers together we have weight you know we'd be our own law firm one lawyer is an employee but two to two lawyers is a fairest and then you know we start to get into you know those questions the other thing I like about this I have a bit of a problem because I've traveled some I mean it's great travels let's repair this other friends now we were just in Thailand we're living in China it's been fabulous but I don't particularly have a roots and being a lawyer gives you those roots you know I mean so I like that about it also so whether that was in Victoria BC or San Francisco just to use an example you have a brother in San Francisco you know if we started living and working as lawyers in San Francisco pretty soon you're a person whose opinion matters in San Francisco you're kind of a citizen of San Francisco you're participate you know I mean you know to whatever said no people from San Francisco are gonna be pointing the finger at you and saying you ain't from around here well you know you've got a law firm you've got a job as a lawyer you know you're making your contribution the community you know I mean you can if you want to go to City Hall and complain that there are too many drug addicts on the streets because they're all I've been to San Francisco the opportunity to you know you as a lawyer you can you can have a pittance but think you can be involved on the body politic in that way which is part of what we're looking for in this other these are the things so I've got to say my mom pitching law school to me now I'm gonna pick you up here's my daughter looking ahead next five years this is this is Alexandra you know we're now four and a half you know for now so five years from now you're gonna be about ten years old you're gonna be nine and a half she you're actually gonna turn five just in a few months that's right so we've got a plan ahead a little bit for that and we're thinking we could be lawyers by the time she's ten years old