The World Can Wait: Wellness, Self-Care, and Making Yourself A Priority | Episode 3

The World Can Wait: Wellness,

Self-Care, and Making Yourself A Priority

Episode 3: Right Above It

Chantel Johnson

“I got a small circle, I’m not with different crews

We walk the same path, but got on different shoes

Live in the same building, but we got different views”

- Drake

My unsolicited opinion is that we receive a lot of unsolicited opinions in law school. In fact, we receive so many unsolicited opinions that they often mask themselves as established facts. But a lot of these opinions start well before we enter law school. “You need X to attend a T14 law school,” or “You need Y experience to be attractive to employers.” While the legal profession has historically been shrouded by elitist opinions, I still don’t know why we are conditioned to think this way, at least without questioning it more. And for someone like me – a first generation high school student at Berkeley Law – re-programming my mind to feel comfortable going against the status quo has been a challenging yet thoughtful endeavor.

Throughout law school, I’ve especially noticed that contentment and overall happiness are often linked and contingent upon how one is progressing (or not progressing) throughout their legal journey. Progression, in general, is a spectrum and can range from grades to OCI to post grad plans. While valid, many fears about progression (or lack thereof) are rooted in tradition and the need to follow a particular path. At times, we are so conditioned to follow a traditional path that anything outside of it can be jarring.

Who told you that? In the grand scheme of life, timelines are arbitrary, or at least it feels that way. But if someone would have told me this a few years ago, I don’t know if I would have believed them. In all, I have taken roughly four gap years. For a long time, I felt as though I was falling behind because I did not take the traditional path of going to high school, college, and then law school. I spent so many years trying to catch up that I failed to discern exactly who or what I was trying to catch up with. And why? Or even, who told me to catch up in the first place? After all, they say that “if you rush it, you ruin it.” More times than not, the path we embark upon makes us right on time for the person we are called to be; right on time for the life that was meant for us. Perhaps if we progressed through life faster or slower than what the universe prescribed, our lives would be much different and arguably not as great.

Who are you doing this for? When you are committed to following your own path, there is less of an incentive to worry about social optics. To outsiders – or from the outside-looking-in – you may look “late” or strange for taking a particular path. For choosing big law over public interest (or vice versa). For attending a certain school. For simply following the path that is best for you. And so on. But luckily you aren’t going to law school for outsiders or ultimately living for outsiders. In general, I think a lot of us come to law school to help people in some capacity (including myself). But a lot of us also go to law school for self-fulfillment (again, including myself). Therefore, I’ve decided that my legal path, and my life more broadly, does not have to make sense to anyone else but me. I cannot worry about what the next person is thinking or doing because I want to be happy. And for me, that’s enough. But it has taken years to get to this point and to feel this way. When I was younger, I used to worry about what things looked like. Now that I’m (somewhat) older, I worry about what things feel like – to me and the visions I have for myself. Growth is interesting in this way.

Besides, if I would have listened to projected timelines or unsolicited opinions, I am not sure I would be at Berkeley or on this particular path. But maybe I’m an anomaly. Or maybe I am not. And maybe you are not either. So what if you believed in yourself enough to follow your own path instead?

Join us next month when I will interview Cooley LLP on wellness in big law!