From Lawyer to Warrior

<p class=ql-align-center><em style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(255 0 0 1)>I had been fortunate enough to seize an opportunity...to explore the unknown. To be denied this experience or to somehow have it stripped away would have left me with one looming question: what might have been?</em></p><p class=ql-align-center><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>When </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Chris Pavlak </strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>failed the bar exam in 2006 and 2007 the comfortable optimism of becoming an attorney vanished replaced by feelings of shame humiliation and inadequacy. Fixated on the financial ascendancy of being a lawyer for a large law firm Chris had attended law school for all the wrong reasons. In that hypercompetitive environment he became singularly focused on comparing himself to others status and making money. When chaos reared its ugly head in the form of repeated failures he realized he would have to radically reshape his life. Uncertain about where a new path might lead Chris embarked on a life of service in the United States Marine Corps.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)><span>?</span></span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In </span><em style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>From Lawyer to Warrior</em><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> Chris shows how failure might be considered an opportunity to willfully and courageously confront the chaos of life. The crucible of Marine officer training and the privilege of leading Marines ultimately helped recalibrate the vision of his life. This is an honest and inspirational memoir about reinvention and reclamation-of finding meaning in the uniqueness of personal tragedy by being absorbed in something bigger than yourself  camaraderie and being responsible for others.</span></p>