From teacher to lawyer – advice on how to do a career change

She was told to put her studies on hold when she was pregnant with her second child.
Despite being a full time teacher and pregnant, Maryna Barnard kept on studying part time through long distance learning. “Nobody promised me tomorrow,” she says.

She wrote exams while she was pregnant.
Two weeks after her daughter was born through a caesarean section, Barnard wrote exams for her last subject. “It was difficult, because I did not have anyone helping me. I studied with my one week old baby on my lap”.

“I knew I was doing it for my children to have a better future, so I endured,” she explains.

“Remember, I was 40 years old so I had to do a whole paradigm shift in my mind. I was tired, sleepy and always hungry. Also the doctor told me I had severe infertility, so I did not expect this pregnancy”.

“I prayed to God to help me through the pregnancy and He did!”

Maryna Barnard in court.

Barnard was teaching at the Misgund Primary School in Langkloof, in the Eastern Cape while studying for her degree in law. Besides teaching, she also coached canoeing. “My two best friends Carina van Eeden and Oba du Plessis, and my husband, Christo, constantly supported and inspired me to keep going.

“Even at my school, my learners would remind me that we need to complete assignments early enough so that I’d have ample time to prepare [for my studies].
Barnard was teaching grade 5 to 9 at the time. The subjects she taught were English, Life Orientation and Arts and Culture.

She started studying for her LLB in June 2010. Her studies were completed in 2014.

“I had distinctions in nearly all my subjects,” Barnard says. “I think I did well because I wanted to prove to other women that the fact that you are working, married and have children should never stop you from reaching your goals in life.”

“Law was always my first choice and in 1990 I was accepted at the University of Stellenbosch,” she shares. “Unfortunately my mother was a single parent and I could not get a study loan from any bank or financial institution. Therefore I opted for my second choice which was teaching.”

Barnard’s teaching career ended in June 2015. In July 2015, she started doing her articles for law with Legal Aid in Port Elizabeth. She has to be a candidate attorney for a year.

Her eldest – a boy – is now 10 years old and her daughter is three years old.

“I leave my house 5:30 in the morning and start working in the office at 7:00. I complete all my administration, phone my civil clients and remind my criminal clients to be at court,” she says.

“Half past eight, I call my colleagues and we leave to court. I go through the court list, greet my clients and go through the court list again.

“At nine o’ clock we start with court and I am busy until 16:00 in the afternoon. I became accustomed working through lunch, because I do not want my clients to return back to prison,” she says.

“I always feel happy when my clients are released from custody and when I tell them about God and how much He still loves them.”

This is what Barnard says she learned over the past several years:

Your destiny and your value are not determined by people’s opinions about you.

If some people can see potential in you, they will try all ways to oppress you or to stop you from reaching your goals.

Don’t allow yourself to stand in your path of success.

Surround yourself with positive friends and delete negative friends from your life.

Make sure you have a good supporting system like friends and family. Don’t be shy to ask them to help you cooking, washing and looking after your children.

Keep your secrets to yourself and your vision and faith rooted in God.

She adds: “My message to others is that your past does not determine your future. Don’t carry your borders of the past. If people want to remember your mistakes it’s their problem not yours.

“Don’t allow others to tell you what your potential is.”