Shannan,
Congratulations on Texas Best – I voted for you!
I would like to let you know how much what you DO – the very fact that that you started a placement firm and worked with me has impacted my life. It’s going to take a bit to get the circle closed – but just read along.
I just wanted to tell you how your last placement for me changed my life. You placed me at Highland Homes in Plano. The GC and I worked very well together. I was to be corporate paralegal there but ended doing and learning quite a bit of litigation, subrogation and trial work. While I was there the hours were fairly regular and commute awesome and again, great GC to work with. He was very faith filled and it was nice to have someone you could have philosophical and theological conversations at work. Our politics were diametrically opposite, but our faith in our lives was not.
One day I was checking my personal email at work and I had an email from SMU Perkins School of Theology. I had attended lectures and three day symposiums there through the years. This time the email was about the Certification in Spiritual Direction program. It was if a thunderbolt hit me. I remember pushing my chair back from the desk going – oh, no, no, NO! And there was an angel behind me pushing me forward to read the email. After a time of prayer and soul searching and metric setting, such as – if this doesn’t happen I won’t apply. Well, just to make this shorter – I applied. At that time it was competitive entry. I had to round up letters of recommendation, write a multi-page essay, etc. I was accepted.
Graduate theology runs several programs that are intensive, several times a year meetings. Instead of a whole semester at a time. This program worked perfect for me – because of how my job was with Highland. If I had been working where I am now, it would never have been an option. I wouldn’t even had considered it. I doubt I would have even prayed to see what my soul thought about it. Would have closed the door and moved on.
Right after I graduated, Highland decided to eliminate the paralegal position. They were private owned at that time, and I understood it was a business decision. I had a long and generous severance. I was sad to be leaving but I know now my time was done there.
What I know without any doubt now is that if I would not have been at Highland I would not have been able to take and complete the Spiritual Direction program. Today, I am a Certified Spiritual Director. I love this path for life. I have a very small base of clients I work with for Spiritual Direction and of course work as a paralegal more than full time. I would not be at the place I am in life now, if not for you.
God put me at Highland for a short time for a purpose. It is continuing to be revealed to me to this day. I truly thank God so many times for you, Shannan. I had an opportunity that changed my life in so many ways, personal and professional.
I am Lutheran by denomination. We have a prayer that goes like this:
O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Shannan, you do not know where your ventures end, but what you do impacts so many in a ripple effect through years. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!
Much love and blessings,
Sara
Sara Jones
Paralegal
Baker Botts L.L.P
