It’s hard to believe that it will be 2020 in just over a week. I still feel like the 90’s were 10 years ago. But the decade from 2010–2019 has been one of remarkable change for me. My life today looks virtually nothing like the life I was living on January 1, 2010.
As another Thanksgiving draws to a close, I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on some of the things for which I am thankful this year.
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I have about two weeks left for this fall’s capsule wardrobe, and I’ve reached the point where I’m getting pretty tired of wearing the same few outfits over and over again. It’s nice not to have to put much thought into what I’m going to wear, but on the other hand, I’m a little bored. I’m craving more variety and missing some of the items I packed away. Now that the weather has gotten cold, I’m wishing I had more sweaters to choose from. I’ve also had to attend more trials than usual this fall, and wearing the same two suits week after week is getting old.
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This time of year makes me want to slow down. The shorter days and cooler temperatures prompt me to stay in bed as long as possible in the morning and lounge around the house at night, curling up with a good book or going to sleep early. My circadian rhythms mimic the daylight.
After a hectic October, November feels like a deep breath. The grass and weeds have stopped growing for a while, the evenings are dark, and the holiday season isn’t yet in full swing. My workload and other commitments have eased up a bit. Summer is over, winter is coming, and my instinct is to hibernate.
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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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