The Law Student Crisis: What to Do After Graduation
Is there really such a thing as a Quarterlife Crisis™?
I decided to trademark the phrase in case you noticed the ™ symbol. You can pay royalties payable to LawVibe, Inc. Non-negotiable by the way.
So what do you think - do law students fresh out of law school go through a Quarterlife Crisis™?
Quarterlife Crisis™ vs Midlife Crisis
Ok, hear me out, I’m not talking about a mid-life crisis. A mid-life crises is when someone in their 40s-50s gets into this serious period of self-doubt. They start thinking about their life being half-over. They start thinking about all the goals and accomplishments they wanted to do but never got around to. That’s when you start getting the leather jacket, Harley Davidson motorcycle, and you start hitting on young blondes. Neat midlife crisis fact: Japanese and Indian cultures don’t seem to go through mid-life crisis! Meaning that I don’t even think they have a word for the term. I know that in Japanese cultures, the elderly are revered. So if you’re hitting the 50s, consider moving to Japan or India. That’s a helpful LawVibe tip.
Back to the Quarterlife Crisis™. You’re in your mid-twenties. As a law school graduate, you’re gonna be feeling this soon. You leave law school, you leave the classes behind, the professors, the classrooms, and you think to yourself, “What the heck am I going to do with the rest of my life? Is this all there is?”
Are we ready for the real world?
I mean, really, are we prepared for the “real world” as law school graduates? What is the real world anyway? Is there an actual moment when we are actually in the “real world”? All this time we’re in college and we’re preparing for the “real world”… but when we leave are we actually ready?
So what do we do as young graduates? Are we supposed to plan every minutiae of our post-graduate life? Are we supposed to know exactly what we want to do and will do for the rest of our lives?
Is life really that short?
I’ve heard so many times, “Life is short, make the most of it!” But is it really? Is life really that short? Cause it sometimes seems so damn long! And when you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing next, it’s pretty long! Minutes stretch to hours, which stretch to days, which stretch to weeks, which stretch to months, which stretch to years, which stretch to decades, and pretty soon you’re a 110 year old law school graduate and you still don’t know what to do with your life. Ok, maybe not so bad but you get my point.
So what do you want to as a fresh law school graduate? Do you want to go into criminal defense and trial preparation? Maybe you want to do corporate law and go to work at a big law firm? How about being a law professor at a prestigious university? Perhaps opening a solo law practice?
Don’t let anyone pressure you into doing something you don’t want to do. Do what you want. After all, you have to live with the next three quarters of your life. And trust me, you don’t want to go through a Century-Crisis™. That’s when you’re 100 years old and you still don’t know what to do with your life. And yes, I’m trademarking that too.
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