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Guys, 

I am currently going for my 2nd Year in the IB. Since I would like to study abroad, more specifically in the UK, August/September are the months "destined" to start thinking on college and courses. I am going to be honest: my dream was to become a writer. I have a few forgotten sketches in my room, and I guess I do have an imaginative and sensitive flair for that. I imagine myself waking up every morning with a happy smile knowing that I would spend the rest of the day with the placidity that writing gives me, I mean the fact that I am dwelling in another world, a more unpredictable one designed with the immense figures of speech that I like to use as a means to make art. There is no course for writers, for the one which would be more adequate and that I would particularly enjoy is creative writing. The employability is scarce as if I wanna be a writer, I am not seeking for a (let's say) company to work at, for example. The only thing is working for a publishing or being a book revisor. These would be virtually the only jobs that could finance my books.

Furthermore, I thought about doing Law. My "second-dream" is to be a defense attorney, go to the court and fight for the ones that do not have as many contacts or financial means to stand up for themselves. Despite the fact that you never know whether your client is innocent or not, everybody has the right to a fair, impartial trial, and that's what I would like to fight for. When frightened or winced with a reputable opponent, people may rush into something (led by fear or impotence); that is very common in negotiations. Hence, I would like to eradicate that, by offering them a firm and responsible hand that would contour the external factors to justice, such as reputation, lobby, fame, money, etc. I am also a very argumentative person, and I can easily find fallacies and means to refute an apparently valid and reasoned argument.

So, I confess I am having doubts on this. I don't know if it is possible to take a certain course but simultaneously attend subjects from another course. For example, taking Law but attending some subjects of the course of creative writing. This would be good, but I don't know if this is doable. Some argue that most writers are good and cult and imaginative due to their careers in Law; some advise me to take a Literature Course, but at the same time if I go to London I will not be writing in my native language, which would certainly disadvantage me within native speakers. Law could give me a stable and financially good life, on the other hand...

Can you help me out? Would it be better to simply choose one, the one that makes me happier or should I reconcile these two? Feel free to express yourselves.

Cheers,

Richard    

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1 hour ago, Richard Stifler said:

Guys, 

I am currently going for my 2nd Year in the IB. Since I would like to study abroad, more specifically in the UK, August/September are the months "destined" to start thinking on college and courses. I am going to be honest: my dream was to become a writer. I have a few forgotten sketches in my room, and I guess I do have an imaginative and sensitive flair for that. I imagine myself waking up every morning with a happy smile knowing that I would spend the rest of the day with the placidity that writing gives me, I mean the fact that I am dwelling in another world, a more unpredictable one designed with the immense figures of speech that I like to use as a means to make art. There is no course for writers, for the one which would be more adequate and that I would particularly enjoy is creative writing. The employability is scarce as if I wanna be a writer, I am not seeking for a (let's say) company to work at, for example. The only thing is working for a publishing or being a book revisor. These would be virtually the only jobs that could finance my books.

Furthermore, I thought about doing Law. My "second-dream" is to be a defense attorney, go to the court and fight for the ones that do not have as many contacts or financial means to stand up for themselves. Despite the fact that you never know whether your client is innocent or not, everybody has the right to a fair, impartial trial, and that's what I would like to fight for. When frightened or winced with a reputable opponent, people may rush into something (led by fear or impotence); that is very common in negotiations. Hence, I would like to eradicate that, by offering them a firm and responsible hand that would contour the external factors to justice, such as reputation, lobby, fame, money, etc. I am also a very argumentative person, and I can easily find fallacies and means to refute an apparently valid and reasoned argument.

So, I confess I am having doubts on this. I don't know if it is possible to take a certain course but simultaneously attend subjects from another course. For example, taking Law but attending some subjects of the course of creative writing. This would be good, but I don't know if this is doable. Some argue that most writers are good and cult and imaginative due to their careers in Law; some advise me to take a Literature Course, but at the same time if I go to London I will not be writing in my native language, which would certainly disadvantage me within native speakers. Law could give me a stable and financially good life, on the other hand...

Can you help me out? Would it be better to simply choose one, the one that makes me happier or should I reconcile these two? Feel free to express yourselves.

Cheers,

Richard    

Studying law in the UK would mean you'd be studying English law. Do you wish to remain in the UK after you finish university? If not, converting your diploma to the local system might be an issue. What you seem to be talking about when it comes to your dream career in law, is being a criminal lawyer, and one that is a public defender, pretty much. You need to realise that you'd be really badly paid. I know life is not all about money, but after years of studying (and becoming a lawyer takes years), one expects to be better rewarded for their work. Your description of a lawyer's job is also very poetic, but not entirely realistic. 

I used to want to be a lawyer, I even got into law school and started it. And I hated every minute and I just had to leave. I couldn't stay in a place that was making me so unhappy. On the other hand, writing is a very unstable and unpredictable career. You might get published, you might not. Unless you become a copywriter, but you seem to favour fiction. 

I don't think your choices should be confined to just law or literature. You could literally study anything and become a writer. There are so many things that can give you inspiration! I have had the opportunity to talk with a creative writing teacher recently and I asked her how she teaches her students. And she told me that you can't teach someone to write well, you can only help them express what's already there. If you've no problems expressing what's already there, creative writing might not even be for you. To be honest, I'm not sure I know of any writer with a creative writing course under their belt. 

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3 minutes ago, Gaby said:

Studying law in the UK would mean you'd be studying English law. Do you wish to remain in the UK after you finish university? If not, converting your diploma to the local system might be an issue. What you seem to be talking about when it comes to your dream career in law, is being a criminal lawyer, and one that is a public defender, pretty much. You need to realise that you'd be really badly paid. I know life is not all about money, but after years of studying (and becoming a lawyer takes years), one expects to be better rewarded for their work. Your description of a lawyer's job is also very poetic, but not entirely realistic. 

I used to want to be a lawyer, I even got into law school and started it. And I hated every minute and I just had to leave. I couldn't stay in a place that was making me so unhappy. On the other hand, writing is a very unstable and unpredictable career. You might get published, you might not. Unless you become a copywriter, but you seem to favour fiction. 

I don't think your choices should be confined to just law or literature. You could literally study anything and become a writer. There are so many things that can give you inspiration! I have had the opportunity to talk with a creative writing teacher recently and I asked her how she teaches her students. And she told me that you can't teach someone to write well, you can only help them express what's already there. If you've no problems expressing what's already there, creative writing might not even be for you. To be honest, I'm not sure I know of any writer with a creative writing course under their belt. 

Hello there Gabi,

I do not agree with you. If being a lawyer has any advantage, the it is the fact that you get tons of money. Honestly. Taking a Law degree would definitely enrich me, that's for sure. A lawyer is one of the jobs that gets you more money, more than a judge or a jurist. The ones who work for the state indeed get badly paid, though I was not thinking about being a public attorney. Also, all the lawyers I know do not seem to have financial probs. I know this seems fallacious, but like any other job you have to be based on what you see, unfortunately. On the other hand, I do agree with you on this: if I would study law in the UK, then I would have to remain there. I was actually thinking about going to the US, so that would be a problem... international law as a course, maybe?

As you said, yes I would be more inclined to fiction. Let me tell you that one of the virtues that I admire on me the most is my creativity. Everything that enhances it would be auspicious to a career as a writer, poet. Like you said, the ingenuity to play with words is natural and cannot be "taught", tho a major in Literature or even Creative Writing that would give me knowledge and get me used to writing descriptions, using peculiar figures of speech and discovering my writing genome would be very useful for me as a writer. A 3 year course on anything which has to do with writing would be the best and the easiest for me. I would not even notice time as I would be doing it with pleasure. I just want that.

Notwithstanding, my writing in english is not that much poetic itself. I have been reading a few stuff, tho as you may imagine writing in my native language would be way better for me to, for example, to play with words, figures of speech characters I don't know.

I thought about lawyer as a complement to writing. I would enjoy doin both things, so...  

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I am in the same position as you are. I am from Mexico but my dream was to go to an american college and get a Creative Writing degree, but Law also interests me and somedays I feel that I should rather take creative writing courses and study something else, that would guarantee money/job. So I don't have an answer for you, but as of right now, I think I might go with Law, and take some writing courses in your free time. 

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14 hours ago, Richard Stifler said:

Hello there Gabi,

I do not agree with you. If being a lawyer has any advantage, the it is the fact that you get tons of money. Honestly. Taking a Law degree would definitely enrich me, that's for sure. A lawyer is one of the jobs that gets you more money, more than a judge or a jurist. The ones who work for the state indeed get badly paid, though I was not thinking about being a public attorney. Also, all the lawyers I know do not seem to have financial probs. I know this seems fallacious, but like any other job you have to be based on what you see, unfortunately. On the other hand, I do agree with you on this: if I would study law in the UK, then I would have to remain there. I was actually thinking about going to the US, so that would be a problem... international law as a course, maybe?

 

I'm very much aware lawyers can make an absolute fortune. But you described helping people in need as what you want to do. Those who, as you said "not have as many contacts or financial means to stand up for themselves.". Those people won't be able to afford to pay you big bucks, I'm afraid. That's what I was referring to, not a legal profession in general, because that, indeed, can be very lucrative. 

International law sounds to me like a waste of time. There are around 200 countries in the world. You can't possibly learn the legal systems of all of them. And you could just study anything in the UK and do a law degree in the US, since it's a postgraduate degree there anyway. 

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1 hour ago, Gaby said:

I'm very much aware lawyers can make an absolute fortune. But you described helping people in need as what you want to do. Those who, as you said "not have as many contacts or financial means to stand up for themselves.". Those people won't be able to afford to pay you big bucks, I'm afraid. That's what I was referring to, not a legal profession in general, because that, indeed, can be very lucrative. 

International law sounds to me like a waste of time. There are around 200 countries in the world. You can't possibly learn the legal systems of all of them. And you could just study anything in the UK and do a law degree in the US, since it's a postgraduate degree there anyway. 

Hmmm yeah but I won't obviously stick to a certain type of clients. I will defend all sorts of clients (I would be lying if I would tell you I don't give a rat's ass about money), though I will make sure I will have some pro bono cases in my files. No lawyer can live on cheap cases but you can have them anyhow, you just increase your efficiency with time and start being able to get more and more and more cases.

Studying in the UK would be expensive, so I would have to take advantage of it. What if I do a law degree in the UK and thus a post graduation on american law, or something similar?

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17 minutes ago, Richard Stifler said:

Studying in the UK would be expensive, so I would have to take advantage of it. What if I do a law degree in the UK and thus a post graduation on american law, or something similar?

You'd have to consult the universities on that matter. Though, to be honest, I don't really see the point of doing a law degree in the UK in that case. Law is a very tough degree, doing it twice, on two legal systems, one of which you will never work in, is rather pointless. 

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