My Journey to Law by The Ordinary Lawyer

I don’t talk about my time at school with anybody, I just say it was a blur and that I don’t remember much. Whilst this is true, it's also due to the fact I don’t want to talk about it. I didn’t enjoy school in the slightest and it was difficult for me to learn due to a number of factors, but I wouldn’t be where I am today without those experiences.  I have always had this plan in my head that I’d end up going back there one day for some kind of reunion and see all my old class mates and wait there all smug for them to ask “So, Hayden what do you do now?” Achieving something special has been driven by my desire to be better than I was expected to be and to answer that question, “Well, I'm a Solicitor with a Masters Degree in Law”. 

Unfortunately as I didn’t do well in school, I struggled to move to the next stage quickly. I wanted to study Public Services at College to enable me to enter the Police. Due to not doing well at GCSE level, I had to do a foundation course (basically re-doing my GCSE’s) to then project me onto the BTEC Public Service course a year later.  This is where I started to thrive, and one key factor was always having that voice in my head telling me I needed to achieve something. I was able to show my ‘particular set of skills’ and become that person I had never been before; I was suddenly top of my class getting distinctions on all my work. This new found level of success was strange, but I loved it!  Whilst in my second year of the BTEC course I was pulled to one side my one of the Lecturers, Sharron. She asked me what my plans were after college. I said that I wanted to join the Police and that I’d be looking at doing Policing at University. This is when she asked me if I wanted to do some extra work, not related to the Course, but a university assignment she had recently handed in on her Law Degree. At this point I was amazed and confused, could I really be good enough to study Law? How will I cope with it? What if I don’t like it?  I did the assignment on a whim to see how I fared, and well, she said it was amazing! She was impressed with it and said that I should seriously consider a Law degree rather than Policing. I mean, I could have still gone into the Police with a Law degree. I had never, in my wildest dreams, imagined doing a Law degree before this point. It just sounded too difficult for a guy who left school with nothing.  I took a huge risk and decided to go for it! I can't remember if I spoke to anybody about this, if I did it would have been my sister, but I still remember the fear and anxiety I felt before starting university. I just kept thinking I wasn’t good enough, or as its called, Impostor Syndrome. I still have this today and still question if I am good enough, but that first step in starting my degree has propelled me to where I am today. Without Sharron and her belief that I could do it, I would never have done my Law degree.  I wish I could bump into her in the street and say thank you. She was one of the first people to ever believe in me and I owe her so much. I hope one day I get that chance to say thank you to her personally. 

Starting my degree to now has flown by! I decided early on at university that I wanted to stay with Law and I am now getting ready to qualify as a Solicitor later this year, something I never dreamed would happen.  When I look back I still think about that reunion and what It would be like, It still inspires me (even though it may never happen).  Finally, thank you! To Sharron, Charley, Ebony and my parents for helping me, encouraging me and picking me up off the floor when I felt a failure.  The Ordinary Lawyer

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