Turning over a new leaf

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I grew up loving law.

The clean lines of reason,

the weight of words,

the promise of justice.

 

I earned my place at university

but not my place in myself.

Confidence was a language I hadn’t yet learned

so I stepped aside and life carried me elsewhere.

 

An office.

Routine.

Two beautiful children.

A life full of love,

yet a quiet ache for the path I’d left behind.

 

Then came the silks,

bright ribbons of possibility suspended in the air.

Aerial arts found the part of me I thought I’d lost.

The courage to climb,

the strength to hold on,

the belief that I could rise.

 

I taught others.

I performed.

I stood before thousands,

wrapped in light and motion,

and for the first time I felt the pulse of self‑belief steady and strong.

But even in the spotlight something whispered,

You’re not finished yet.

 

So in the year of the Horse,

a year of bold steps and unstoppable momentum,

I quit the office,

released the silks,

and turned toward the dream I had once been too small to claim.

 

Now I walk forward with the strength I learned in the air,

the resilience of a mother,

the clarity of a woman who refuses to live with regret.

 

This is my new leaf: not a gentle turning,

but a deliberate unfurling,

a declaration that I can and I will become the lawyer I always meant to be

which started here, at the Open University.

Rebecca Buchanan
Rebecca Buchanan
One small person with a very big dream. Ex aerial artist, now aspiring lawyer.

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