Casey Hurley's Career/Life Story

Casey Hurley will be participating in the "Develop (and Determine) A Career Path Despite Uncertainty" Panel. 

I loved growing up in a big family and always wanted my own. As a single law student, I looked forward to the day when I would hang my diplomas in my kitchen and my 12 children would know that all my years of schooling had been dedicated to preparing for my ultimate endeavor: raising them. Of course I was realistic enough to know that I might never get married, so I studied hard to prepare for the fabulous career I would have if I stayed single. When I grew up I would become either a brilliant supermom or a wildly successful career woman.

After finishing a journalism degree at BYU, I attended the Wake Forest University School of Law in North Carolina. I was a little nervous about moving to a place with only about 4 young single LDS men in the whole city; but though the odds weren't great, I figured I couldn't really date any less than I had a BYU. A few friends in my ward found husbands in fantastically miraculous ways, but I didn't. After school, I accepted a position with a law firm in Portland, Oregon practicing corporate finance law. Working long hours to make lots of money turned out not to be especially inspiring, though I enjoyed many aspects of my work--especially the people. I started looking for more gratifying work, and felt called, really, to teach at BYU-Idaho. The week before I interviewed at BYU-Idaho, I attended my family ward's Enrichment Meeting where a police officer (not LDS) was the presenter. About a month later he was baptized, another month and we were married, one more month and we moved to Idaho where I began my teaching career.

It was five years later that our son finally arrived on the scene. I went on maternity leave for a semester; then returned to work on a 75% contract. I would have quit my job to stay home if I could have. When my son was two, my husband quit his job to stay home with our son and work on some schooling. I went back to a 100% teaching contract. My son turned three about the same time our daughter was born nine months ago. 

So I find myself with about 10 less kids than I'd hoped for, though the two I've got make up for it in cuteness and genius. I'm hardly a supermom: my daughter eats food and other soft items off my dirty floors while my son plays house with his stuffed animals whose lion mom always has to work on her computer before she can play with the lion kids. Meanwhile, I'm trying to talk to a student on the phone who is wondering why there are lions roaring in the background followed by baby screams. My job is challenging, rewarding, and quite flexible: I teach and meet with students on campus, but do my prep, grading, and emailing from home. But working at home while I mother means working whenever I'm not mothering to make up for the gaps in my work day. It generally feels like a crazy mess. At times I cry over the time I spend at work away from my children. Other times I wish I could give more undivided time to my students. But I occasionally get a heartfelt note from a student saying I made a difference, and I regularly get a hug and a kiss and a "mom, I love you" or "ma-ma-ma-ma." And I can't help but smile and cry a little just thinking about it.