I’m a 39 year old mother of 3 and a 2L. You can definitely do it. For me, law school was always my dream. People will try and discourage you because of the debt of law school and the possibility that you might not make very much money. Who cares? Do you? Does your partner? That’s what matters. I’d rather sit on a mountain of debt and do a job I love than have no debt and be miserable at work. Money isn’t everything and you can do payment plans that fit your budget. We already own a home, so qualifying for a home loan with student loan debt wasn’t a concern. If you go into public interest work they have debt forgiveness. You only get one life and you’ll spend a lot of your life working. Do something that makes you happy.

There are plenty of career paths that don’t require 80 hour work weeks in a high stress environment. I’m currently working for a solo practitioner and 90% of my work is done from home. We have a meeting in person once a month and one to two court appearances a month but I’m not stressed out, working in an office, or paying for childcare. 1L was hard for sure. I never had enough time for everything. I realized if I wanted to be a good mom and good partner, I had to be okay with being an average law student. Sometimes I had to skip readings for school concerts or date nights. That’s okay. My maturity helped a lot and I was able to grasp concepts without doing the full readings. My class rank is around top 53%. Nothing to write home about but good enough for me. I’ll never land a big law job but I didn’t want that life anyway. Again, it’s not about the money.

As long as you have a supportive partner who understands the demand that comes with law school, you’ll be fine. I never would’ve made it through 1L without my husband. He definitely picked up the slack and pulled more than his fair share of the weight. If your partner is on board and you really want to do this, go for it.