I’m Pivoting

“A pivot is a change in strategy without a change in vision.” -Eric Ries

I’ve spent more than a decade serving disadvantaged communities as an actor, deck manager, and stage carpenter; soon, I’ll be serving additional communities pending a trip through law school. On May 27th, 2021, I began an accelerated course of study targeting a fresh bachelor’s degree in philosophy (focusing on public/social policy and government affairs) and immediate subsequent enrollment in law school. If accepted, I’ll focus on constitutional law, civil rights, and human rights.

Turns out it’s not that big of a shift. Think about the broad skills that will transfer:

• discipline
• empathy
• communication
• service to others over self
• confronting a weakness until it’s a strength
• leading a team through inconceivable deadlines
• shifting seamlessly between member and leader of a team
• being as available in your 11th hour as you were in your 1st

None of that is getting left behind. These skills also transfer exceptionally well:

• note-taking
• research
• active listening
• critical thinking
• problem-solving
• improvising
• perseverance
• delivering under pressure
• convincing a room full of people to follow what you say
• seeking excellence every second of the day

Why this path? Why now?

I have long felt underutilized, that I was capable of doing more to help others. I’ve increasingly been working myself to the bone with every job I’ve held, trying to find that place where I was maxed out and could go to bed knowing I had done all I could; the problem was, I would drain my body and all the hours in the day, but I never went to bed feeling I had fully tapped my mind. There was more that I could do.

While I’m far from unique in feeling called to respond to injustice, I’ve many times found myself set apart by certain skills in observation, logical reasoning, and carefully crafted communication, which have enabled me to resolve issues where others had previously failed.

Looking back at the handful of interventions and mediations I’ve initiated or joined over the years, I’ve realized that each brief act of restoring and preserving the rights of my peers was more satisfying to me than the other work in which I was engaged. Still, I never considered it that way at the time.

What’s the timeline?

Thanks to expanded distance learning spurred by the pandemic, I’ll be able to spend the next year working from home on two years’ worth of transferrable classes while seeking transfer admission to complete my bachelor’s. I’ll take the LSAT in the summer of 2023 and apply to law school that fall.

What’s the plan after law school?

I’ve got so much to learn before I can predict the specific work in which I’ll be engaged, but there are plenty of avenues from which to apply the skills I have and the many more I stand to gain. Whether that’s in the realm of policy, litigation, or some area just outside the direct practice of law, I can’t know until further down the road. What I know for sure is that I’ll keep at it every single day for the next five years (and beyond) until I’m fully tapped-out when I hit the pillow at the end of the day. That, I can promise!