The Story of James

Last night as I was packing a few items up in my car from my office, james wished me luck and congratulated me for having found what I wanted to do and for getting accepted into the program I wanted.

James is the divorce attorney that works in the building I did. If you are thinking about divorce, this is the guy to go to. He is one of the best. Besides being a great attorney we actually think that he suffers from asperger’s syndrome and possibly schizophrenia. There are a lot of times where he is super awkward. He talks to himself in his office, and often doesn’t talk with anyone else. In fact, by the time I worked at the office for six months he’d actually never said anything to me. Our first conversation happened just a few months ago.

After all my applications for law school had been turned in, I waited—perhaps less than patiently. One by one I got dropped from each one. I had two schools left to hear from, and I was getting nervous. I had prayed a lot that I would get into law school because I sincerely felt like that was what I was supposed to do with my life. I decided to fast and my parents decided to join me. I figured that was the least I could do for something so important for my future. That morning as I was getting ready for work I was actually writing a talk for church. As I was writing I realized that I loved teaching. I loved writing and preparing lessons, but I actually loved giving them more.

I needed to go into work early in order to get a few cases prepared, and I honestly didn’t expect to see anyone else there because no one shows up that early at our office. To my surprise james came walking in and started talking to me. I was a little taken back, but he just said, “are you sure you want to go to law school?” I thought so. He told me that if I didn’t just love law then I shouldn’t do it. To be completely honest, I really thought I loved law, but I had worked in the field for a year and didn’t really love it. I did it because I needed to, but it wasn’t as rewarding as I thought it would be, and besides the great stories I’d gleaned, I didn’t get much more than that out of it. He asked me if there was something more I just loved to do and I thought about English, and teaching, and writing. James informed me that if he could do it all over again he wouldn’t choose law. In fact he would have gone into the film industry working for Sundance.

On his recommendation I got in contact with the graduate school at Creighton. I had applied there a year before, but wasn’t sure if I really wanted to study English, so even though I got accepted I turned it down for the prospect of studying law. They wrote me back and told me that I didn’t need to reapply, because they’d been so impressed with me that they would just make a place for me in the upcoming class—if I wanted it. I did.

James might not ever read this, but the Lord answered my prayers through him. I’m grateful.