Midlife moves – other Baton Rougeans have taken the leap by changing careers or embracing new passions

Original career: Environmental attorney
New calling: High-school history teacher

“Actually, this is my second career change. In my late 30s, I left a federal job with the Social Security Administration to attend law school at LSU. … After 20-plus good years practicing law, the time was right for a new adventure, and I have always harbored a desire to teach. I fully expect that learning the craft of teaching will be just as energizing and challenging—and occasionally as terrifying—as law school was.”

Original career: Surgical office manager
New calling: Immigration attorney

“I always wanted to go to law school. As the kids grew older, I worked with my husband as his office manager, applying my undergraduate studies in business and finance. When my youngest was a junior … I took the LSAT and applied to law school. Lo and behold, I was accepted into LSU Law. It has been a great and enriching experience in my life. I hope to use my new career to help people in need and try to make a difference in our community.”

Original career: Business and corporate attorney
New calling: Novelist

“I’m still 24/7 at my day job, but I have added to this by writing novels—fast-paced thrillers with a biblical backstory. The first one, Judas the Apostle, was published in July 2012. The second, Sicarius, is finished and is being edited; it should be out this summer. I write for one hour each night, and I enjoy it very much. I guess it goes to show that we should always follow our passion, at whatever age.”

Original career: Professional theater and performing arts
New calling: Beekeeper and owner, Bocage Bee & Honey

“A colony of bees settled into a column on the front porch of our house, and we all got to be rather chummy with them. The advent of a wedding at home meant we had to move the bees into a proper wooden hive—my first hive. Why or how I started a retail business at age 72, I am not sure. … I don’t feel that I have left the theater and the arts, though; none of us theater folk ever think we’ve retired or quit. I expect to be carried out of a theater at the end.”

Original career: Radio sales and marketing
New calling: Commercial real estate

“I grew up in a real estate family—my mother was a broker in Austin—and always loved sales and marketing as well as relationship building. I enjoyed this part of my business most during my 25-plus years in radio, most recently in Baton Rouge at Clear Channel Radio. In commercial real estate, I’m able to use my sales and marketing experience while helping clients navigate their real estate investments.”