Them and us

Since I attained my place on a law degree at UCL, I have found that people treat me differently. Differently is a rather vague description, so to elaborate I would say they treat me with more respect. Everytime someone asks me what I do for a living, I let them know I work in IT, and they make some remark about 'lots' of money, I usually retort with a comment about the serious lack of money.

Following a discussion about the IT industries supply and demand matrix I let them know I have given up on IT, having obtained placement on a law degree in October, and their eyes light up. Its a warm feeling when people act this way, but I try my best to make sure I keep my feet firmly on the ground, as not to get caught up in the excitement of it all. I haven't even begun the journey yet and I find it's all too easy to become complacent.

I remind myself that Changing careers is not only changing physical aspects of my life, for example leaving my job or going back into education, its a change in thinking, a change in etiquette, a change in how I actually live. Its hard to admit but I do find my life has turned into a THEM AND US scenario.

Growing up I was from a family with a doctor for a father and nurse for a mother. We didn't consider ourselves middle class, in fact we didn't consider ourselves any class we just were happy existing day by day. I grew up in a neighbourhood that was very loose with its language, people would say phrases such as "Hello MATE","ain't" and "Alright geez" and many more. This was never a problem for me growing up or working in IT, I wasn't as crass as other people but I did find that I slipped into that tone when I was in the company of people who spoke like that. It was peer pressure, I wanted to fit in. (I do want to emphasise at this point that I was not some kind of Del Boy or Rodney Trotter, my accent was softer but it was evident nevertheless.)

Since deciding on a career in law, I have dedicated my days to improving my accent,attempted to stop calling people, who I don't know, "mate" and improving my overall diction and pronunciation. It's alot harder than I thought it would be. My girlfriend helps alot as she is the most well spoken person I know, I would compare her to Elizabeth Hurley's voice, so I find it easy to speak more elegantly around her.

However my friends and some family are still a problem.

Thus the 'Them and Us' connundrum has developed. What worries me is that by improving my diction I will alienate long term friends and family. Alternatively if I don't improve my pronunciation and diction I may as well give up the journey of being a lawyer right now. I can't imagine greeting a client with "Hello mate" or "No this contract ain't anygood". Its not that I would openly use this phrases but the odd slip could prove fatal.

I have committed myself to this path, regardless of the reaction of friends and family. These sacrifices are inevitable if I want to be a successful lawyer, and so I expect the odd comment about my change in language to emerge at some point.

I guess I wanted to write this blog because amongst the 95% (a number picked from thin air) of well spoken 'wannabe' lawyers there is the crassly spoken individual who strives for a life in law. I didn't really want them to feel like it was only them who worried about these things. I also thought it might be an interesting topic to blog about especially considering the law in the UK is striving to present a diverse selection of lawyers, more representative of the societies they exist for.