It’s Okay Not to Have It All Figured Out
“What area of law do you want to specialise in?”
Is this the go-to icebreaker you hear in law school? Does it add a butterfly to your stomach? It certainly did for me when my Public Law lecturer casually threw it at me. Maybe he hoped someone would answer with a bold, “Public Law!”
(It didn’t happen, of course.)
Reflecting as a second-year law student, I recall the relief I felt after completing my high school finals, thinking, I’ve finally made it. Little did I know, the real journey was just about to begin. Coming to law school, I realised that this magical place has a way of humbling you and making you feel overwhelmed. Especially when you’re surrounded by peers who seem to have everything mapped out.
But here’s the thing: do we always need to be so…‘figured out’?
When I was younger, I was convinced to become a fashion designer. I even attended a summer program at the prestigious Central Saint Martins in London, only to learn that British food is a culinary crime, and avant-garde designs look like Chanel in a tornado.
(No offence to those who appreciate British food and avant-garde.)
“Maybe fashion isn’t for me,” I thought. “Maybe I just want to create art.”
Just as I began to settle into that thought, life had other plans. I met one of the most influential people in my life, my history teacher. All of a sudden, I wanted to be just like her, a passionate educator who illuminates the past to enrich the present.
But my dad saw something different.
“If you love history so much,” he said, “why not study law? Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, they were all lawyers before they made history”.
While I wasn’t aiming for a spot in history textbooks, I was drawn to the idea of standing up against injustice.
Now, here I am, studying law abroad, embracing a dream that came much later than it did for many of my peers, and sharing something I’ve learned along the way: it’s okay not to have it all figured out.
Just as my aspirations shifted in my final year of high school, law school isn’t the final destination. During my Foundations of Law unit, I was determined to work in community legal centres and help those who truly needed it. Now? I’ve fallen in love with Equity. Tomorrow, I might dream of being a judge, a professor, or returning to my artistic roots.
People of our generation will likely have multiple careers in our lifetimes. With AI, globalisation, and shifting economies, who knows what the world will look like when we graduate? That’s why I believe there’s power in permitting yourself to explore, take detours, or even make U-turns.
If it’s never too late to start, why would it ever be too late to change?
Not having things figured out isn’t a weakness; it’s just another sketch in our life series. Some of us might paint in bold strokes, while others take time finding the right colour to start. Either way, we don’t need to have it all figured out, we just need to keep painting.
One day, we’ll all look back and see how the unexpected strokes created something we couldn’t have planned.
Written by Fay Cheung