Month: September 2019

Career Pathways and Trusting the Journey

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Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, Northern Ireland. Photo of people walking along a narrow path on a coast toward a tiny rocky island

This Friday, I’ll be speaking at an undergraduate career conference. In preparation for my panel on Advocating for Justice (legal careers), the organizers sent me some questions to consider. The first was how my educational experience sparked my interest in being an attorney or working in the judiciary and making a difference in this sphere.

I laughed a little when I read the question because, as some of you know, I didn’t even consider going to law school until after I had graduated from college. I started trying to think of experiences I’d had in college that may have led me in this direction, but then I realized that pointing to any particular undergraduate experience would be a contrived answer. I decided it was best to just be honest with these students, because the truth is that many of us don’t have some early moment of clarity or grand plan that leads us to our dream careers. For me and many others I’ve met, we got to where we are largely by chance. More accurately, we made a bunch of small decisions without a big vision. We put one foot in front of the other, unable to see the full path but hoping and trusting we’d eventually end up somewhere good.

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Why I Live in Rural America

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View from atop Roan Mountain, Tennessee

I read this opinion piece a few days ago called “Something Special is Happening in Rural America.” It gave me a little added optimism about my chosen home and reminded me of some of the reasons I live here. I’m part of a trend in America away from living in big cities and toward living in smaller towns.

I grew up in a town of about 20,000 people in south central Pennsylvania. Although the town itself was small, it was about 30 minutes from the state capital and in a metropolitan area with a population of more than 500,000. I lived about two hours from Baltimore and Philadelphia and less than four hours from New York City.

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Why You Need Specific Goals and How to Set Them

- Alexis Leave a comment
Photo of bright afternoon sun shining over a ridge

A reader recently asked me to do a post on goal setting, and it’s a topic that’s been on my list for a while, so I’m happy to oblige!


Looking back at stages in my life when I felt like I was underperforming or not living up to my potential, they were pretty much all times when I lacked a vision for where I wanted to go and specific goals I wanted to meet. Goal-setting in school was fairly easy because the structure of formal schooling involves a lot of clear steps and numeric measures. There are external expectations that you can strive toward: get an A on the next test, achieve a certain score on the SAT, rank high in your class, get into college or graduate school, secure an internship, etc. I was a people-pleaser when I was younger, and I was motivated to check those boxes, get the associated praise, and feel like I was in control and doing well.


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