Hi, mollyac11---
This was something I struggled with for a long time. I had worked in legal publishing, and for a year, I toyed with the idea of going to law school. I had developed a deep appreciation for the law and complexities of our legal system, and an application to law school seemed like a logical next step. So I did a ton of research. I found that, 1---I would, indeed, love to study the law, and 2---I would probably hate being a lawyer. I interviewed friends, friends of the family, and people online, and I only found a few people who actually *enjoyed* being lawyers. A few people loved it (I found one constitutional lawyer who was very passionate about what she did), but most people hated the stress of the occupation---and after some rumination, I figured I would probably feel the same way.
My advice would be to ask around---much like you're doing here. If I hadn't done the legwork and given it some serious thought, I'd have made an expensive decision that would have been burdensome to me. Gather as much info as you can, and figure out what will make you happiest (haha---and also consider that income is correlated to happiness!).
As for me, I got my masters in social work (hence the handle), and I'm pretty confident I made the right choice. The field is stressful in ways that are a little different than a lawyer would face, but I feel like I'm in the right place (even though the pay is... not great). At the end of the day, I feel like I've contributed to the community, even if it is only in very small ways. If you want to read more about the different fields of social work, I've put together a guide that might help.
Good luck, mollyac11! I'm sure most of the people on this forum were once wading through the same decisions you're making now.
