The dream, it moves

A few months back, I wrote about getting into LSE for the fall, and finally deciding to attend. A few months later, I'm writing about passing up on my chance to go. A few things have changed in the meantime...

-there's been some internal changes at benevolent company J. At the end of the day they are the ones footing the awfully expensive tuition bill and I wasn't ready to mortgage my soul for five years (the full repayment time).
-It would have been a career limiting move under the new company direction.
-as i look at the big picture, this is a very indirect route to where I want to be. It would probably get me there, but slowly. Having put in my time in Germany to get to the UK, maybe I don't have so much patience anymore for due paying.

Someone's comment to me, 'that's a shame you pulled out'
-in the grand scheme of things, I disagree. I consider myself lucky to have figured out now instead of a year or two down the line. Principally:
-I don't really need another Master's degree at the end of the day. I require a Master's degree to be able to renew my work permit in 2012 and I already have that, and it's been UK certified and all that jazz for my intial permit.
-I have cobbled together a background that is appreciated by admissions people, recruiters and the like. If I change my mind or decide to do anything similar, I have faith that I'll be able to get into LSE or a similar level program.

So now what instead?
I've had a long-time itch to do law. It ties loosely into my career goals in a niche fashion. When I scrapped the LSE idea and started to look around, I figured out:
-one really needs to have done undergraduate pre-law in the UK (different from in the US where law school entrants have done pre-law or maybe English, history, or anything else under the sun).
-or to take a one year conversion course on an existing degree and then a two year traineeship, in order to get into law school.
-or one can muddle through this four year part-time program which will allow one to take the one year conversion without the traineeship, and then to bumble through to law school--a certified, centrally administered program which is aimed toward working people, many of whom start at the bottom rung of law office jobs like secretaries or clerks and slowly work their way up.

So why?
-It's just sort of an occupational interest. Law training will definitely enhance my current skillset, but I like what I do, I'm not looking for a career change.
-I've considered being a lawyer since a very long time.

• At my 8th grade graduation, when I mentioned this was my long-term career goal, the cranky pants priest suggest that I become a nun and then become a nurse or a teacher because, 'nurses and teachers help people and we have too many lawyers in the world.' (My grandfather used to refer to this particular priest as 'Father Cranky Pants')
• As I graduated high school, the dream still simmered. I received a $100 scholarship toward my college education from a local law office. (I was working one of my three jobs that summer, so I missed the photo op in the local paper).
• In my university years, I organized my scheduled to make a double major and a minor, so I wasn't able to p*ss around with taking random courses which didn't count, or double count. The one only I did take was 'Business Law'. (OK, so it counted toward my business minor).

-This gives me a very soft part-time entrance into law. Each of the four part-time years is independent; I can stop at any time, any of them will improve my CV.
-Locally, I found an offering of this course in my town in Essex, which makes things a lot easier than trekking into London.
-Socially, it could be interesting to me to meet people locally.
-The cost is on par with a US community colleage course, but the test is adminstered centrally. So as long as I pass the test, that is the certification at the end of the day, not where I took the lectures.

I've registered and paid on Saturday. Classes start two weeks from today for year one.