2021 Wins and 2022 Plans

Photo of the author standing on a sidewalk, smiling
Photo by Jessica Scheuer

New Year’s Eve has always been one of my favorite holidays. The changing of the calendar year is a perfect time to reflect on what has been and set my sights on what could be.

I don’t know about you, but 2021 was a tough year for me. It feels like a blur, or a continuation of the weird time-warp that began in March 2020. I spent much of this year just doing my best to make it through one day at a time. But looking back at the year in the aggregate, here are some of the things I accomplished in 2021:

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The Worst Advice I Ever Got

Yearbook photo of the author as a law student, vulnerable to unfortunate career advice
Me as a law student, vulnerable to unfortunate career advice

Early in my law school career, I received some career advice from an older and supposedly wiser person in the profession. This man wasn’t just a lawyer, he was a judge. And the advice he gave me was, in retrospect, terrible.

He had worked in several different legal roles in his career, in private practice and in public service on a local level. He had been a judge for about a decade when I encountered him. So what was his advice for my career?

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What Do I Need to Know Right Now? What Else is Possible?

Photo of a young child seated and looking at a book, photographed from behind through the bars of a baby gate.

As I write this, my household is once again in quarantine because my son was exposed to COVID at daycare. When I got the news on Friday, a sense of dread came over me as I anticipated what the coming week would look like, working from home with a one year old and a three year old.

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