Check Out Misty Schlabaugh’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Misty Schlabaugh.

Hi Misty, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in a small town in South Florida during the 90s; a time when a job at the local supermarket was enough to support a family. One of the earliest memories I can muster up of myself is a giddy three years old lying on the living room floor, as close to the TV as possible, repeatedly watching the newly released Lion King in 1994. At the time, my family, including my parents, five older brothers, grandmother, and myself, lived in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom single-family home. My parents in one room, my grandmother and I in another, and my brothers in the garage that my dad hooked an AC unit into. We lived in paradise; at least that is what I believed. Although my parents did a great job of hiding it from me growing up, as I got older, I realized that we lived on the borderline of poverty. That reality hit me like a ton of bricks as I tried to navigate going to college and figuring out what kind of career I wanted. The world was changing fast and a job at the supermarket was no longer enough to make ends meet let alone pay for college. I wanted to be a lawyer but decided quickly that wouldn’t be an option because there was no way that I could afford to go to law school. I decided to start small and see where that would take me.

One thing that really helped me was in eleventh grade when I discovered that I could enroll in college courses for free through a program called Dual Enrollment. I quickly took advantage of this opportunity and was able to get over halfway through an associate’s degree while in high school. However, with books, supplies, and transportation that needed to be paid for, I had to start working. I began juggling work, sometimes multiple jobs, high school, and the additional college courses. After high school, I had to take out loans to keep going to college, which I reluctantly did. I hated the idea that I had to go into debt in order to be able to afford to make ends meet, but a student loan officer who gave me quite the sales pitch convinced me to start taking out loans.

I wanted to take out as little debt as possible so I figured I would go for a two-year degree and settle on a radiography program. Halfway through the program, I got into a car accident and the injuries I sustained caused me to have to drop out of the program. When I was recovering from the accident many of my doctors prescribed me various narcotics. However, because I have a family history of drug abuse, I refused that form of treatment. This was when I discovered cannabis as an alternative medicine. I began learning about cannabis and the controversy that surrounds it. All of this caused me to think again about becoming a lawyer, but I was still not willing to go into that much debt. I did want to go back to school, so again, I decided to go with a two-year program, but this time I found something in the legal field: paralegal studies.

Shortly after starting the paralegal program, I moved out on my own. Managing a household added to the challenge of going to school and working multiple jobs, but I kept moving forward. Once I graduated with a degree in paralegal studies, I found a job as a paralegal; my first experience in the corporate world. I was certain that because I had a college degree and because I did all of the things I had been told to do since childhood to make a better life for myself, that I would get a well-paying job and be able to live a life free of financial burden. Spoiler alert: that was far from the truth. Even though I had a college degree and a corporate job, I still struggled financially and so I also had two part-time jobs. I, like many others, was frustrated by the result of going to college with the hope of being able to support myself afterward, only to find out that I still needed to work multiple jobs just to survive.

I came to understand that many of the people around me had a story very similar to mine–people trying to make a better life for themselves despite the odds being stacked against them. I learned that my experiences with poverty were not unique and in many ways, I was much, much luckier than most people who suffer from poverty. This led me to question how the intricacies of our everyday lives work; the government, politics, and especially law. As I began to understand more about poverty, income inequality, and other social issues throughout the country, I realized that highly progressive change is needed in order to correct the country’s many systemic injustices.

At the same time all over the country, various civil rights movements began to take hold. I didn’t know how I could fit into all of this but I was determined to do more than continue with struggling through the corporate ladder. I didn’t know what to do next, so with just $2,000 in savings, I left my roots in Florida and moved to Colorado. I worked at a tea shop for a few months where I met my husband and then started working for staffing agencies where I was placed at various paralegal jobs. I went back to school to get my undergrad in business communications and found a permanent job as a paralegal job at a bankruptcy firm in downtown Denver.

I was finally at a point in my life where I only needed one job to make ends meet and I continued with school and got my master’s degree in legal administration. I continued to watch as the country was confronted with its long history of social justice issues and I continued to watch as people struggled for the bare minimum. That is when it hit me, I know what I want to do with my life–fight for social justice and defend civil rights.

While working on my master’s degree, I studied for and took the Law School Admissions Test and subsequently applied for the only two law schools in Colorado. Unfortunately, I did not get accepted, so I applied to four out-of-state law schools. I got accepted to a part-time program at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. Although I didn’t know how I would make it work, I decided to go and hope for the best. As the start of the semester approached in August 2021, I quit my job so that I would be able to focus solely on school. For the first time since I started taking college courses in 2007, I would be able to focus 100% on school. I owe a lot of this advantage to my husband who has done a lot to support me throughout this process.

Moving to San Francisco was not an option, so once law school started, I had to travel to San Francisco every other weekend for classes, which believe it or not was much cheaper than moving there. Still, this was very challenging to manage, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then less than one month into my first semester, I lost Bailey, my 13-year-old golden retriever; my best friend. His loss had a profound impact on me in ways that I did not expect and the grief took its toll on my studies. I slowly began to find some semblance of peace with his loss and was able to get back on track with school. I ended up doing really well my first year and landed in the top 9% of my class. I was hopeful that since I did so well, I might be able to transfer to the University of Denver Sturm College of law. So, I applied for the transfer and got accepted and will be starting there this Fall.

After living through various systemic injustices, I have learned that many people in the United States are victims of a tyrannical system that forces people into egregiously inequitable and unfair living conditions. This is what drove me to embody a rebellious lawyering perspective; a perspective that aims to dismantle systems of privilege and give power to people and communities who can use their collective power to effect systemic change. I aspire to join institutions like the American Civil Liberties Union to join the fight for social justice and to defend civil rights. It is my goal to work towards a world in which people are not fighting over material resources and in which everyone is provided with the fundamental requirements needed in life – income, health care, food, housing, and education.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road by any means. When I began my journey toward higher education, I thought that the hardest part of college would be learning the material, but I learned quickly that the most difficult part would be trying to survive (literally). The biggest challenges I have fought to overcome are economic disadvantages and obstacles that I have faced over the years. I did not have any type of financial security or resources to support me while going to college. There are some people who are born into wealthy families that have the security of generational wealth. Considered the upper-class, these few people begin life with the money and resources that are necessary to survive. Conversely, most people in the U.S. are born into hardship and have no support system. Referred to as the working class, these people, including me, begin life with nothing and must sell their own ability to work in order to obtain the resources needed to survive. I often struggled to find stable income and housing and to find a balance between work and college. For almost all of my college education, I have been employed, sometimes at multiple jobs, often switching between going to school full-time and part-time. For a majority of my college education, I have lived on my own, sometimes with roommates, and in the last few years with my husband.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a law student at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and staff editor for the Denver Law Review, volume 100. I aspire to work in social justice, civil rights, and constitutional reform. I want to focus specifically on income inequality and how it intersects with a person’s ability, especially minorities ability, to access basic resources like adequate housing, health care, nutritious food, and a proper education. I believe that fundamental resources like income, health care, housing, food and water, and education are basic rights that should be a part of the Constitution.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
The adversities that I have faced throughout my life have led me to become exceptionally self-disciplined and well-organized and led to my abilities to think strategically, adapt, and persevere; all of which have been paramount to my success. To quote one of my favorite shows, “Sometimes, life is like this dark tunnel. You can’t always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving, you will come to a better place.” (Uncle Iroh, Avatar: The Last Airbender). With resilience and fierce determination, I kept moving forward and overcame financial disadvantages and adverse obstacles; continuing to do so to this day.