<p style="font-weight: 400;">I grew up loving law.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">The clean lines of reason,</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">the weight of words,</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">the promise of justice.</p>
<p> ;</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">I earned my place at university</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">but not my place in myself.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Confidence was a language I hadn’t yet learned</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">so I stepped aside and life carried me elsewhere.</p>
<p> ;</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">An office.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Routine.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Two beautiful children.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">A life full of love,</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">yet a quiet ache for the path I’d left behind.</p>
<p> ;</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Then came the silks,</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">bright ribbons of possibility suspended in the air.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Aerial arts found the part of me I thought I’d lost.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">The courage to climb,</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">the strength to hold on,</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">the belief that I could rise.</p>
<p> ;</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">I taught others.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">I performed.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">I stood before thousands,</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">wrapped in light and motion,</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">and for the first time I felt the pulse of selfâbelief steady and strong.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">But even in the spotlight something whispered,</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>You’re not finished yet.</em></p>
<p> ;</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">So in the year of the Horse,</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">a year of bold steps and unstoppable momentum,</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">I quit the office,</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">released the silks,</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">and turned toward the dream I had once been too small to claim.</p>
<p> ;</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Now I walk forward with the strength I learned in the air,</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">the resilience of a mother,</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">the clarity of a woman who refuses to live with regret.</p>
<p> ;</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">This is my new leaf: not a gentle turning,</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">but a deliberate unfurling,</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">a declaration that I can and I will become the lawyer I always meant to be</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">which started here, at the Open University.</p>

Share
Read more