Ray Curtis, Man who Became 1st Lawyer in His Family against all Odds

Impressive young American man, Ray Curtis Petty Jr., from Albany, Georgia, has become the first lawyer in his family after overcoming several hurdles and challenges.

His experience in law school wasn’t an easy one. He said when he was young, many people didn’t believe in him including some of his teachers. Some of whom insisted that he should be in special education classes.

NOTE: Children who typically qualify for special education services include those with the following disabilities: Intellectual disability. Hearing impairments (including deafness) Speech or language impairments.

Regardless, he went on to earn his first degree at Albany State University. Though, when he applied to various law schools, he was again faced with lots of discrimination but finally, he was accepted to Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School.

He later went on to be elected as President of the Student Bar Association of the school.

Again, In 2020, he lost his sister who died of sickle cell anemia when he was just about to complete his law studies.

He had to deal with this heartbreaking loss while taking five classes in his last semester and performing his military duties which he combined with studies as he worked as a paralegal in the United States Air Force Reserves

Regardless of all these, he graduated as the valedictory speaker of his law class. He went further to take the bar exam but again failed on his first attempt.

He was not deterred by this and he started studying again. When he received his exam results for the second time, he and his family were overjoyed as he had done excellently well this time.

He said that he could not have achieved his goal of becoming a lawyer if not for the support of his family. He hopes that his story can serve as an inspiration to others too.

In his words: “I want to be a, just a pillar in my community, no matter where God may lead me, and I want to be able to do the will of God and I want to be able to serve his people. It’s not about me at all, just being in this profession this is a profession of servitude”.

Indeed his story is inspiring as one could learn from his story how to face challenges and scale through them.