Law as Life, Part Three

Friday through Sunday marked my first "vacation" since starting work. Obviously, since it was just a weekend trip to Chicago, it's not quite an all-out vacation, but it did involve taking off a day from work and flying across the country to visit friends. It also involved a lot of shopping that put some damage back onto my credit card when I want and need so desperately to just pay it off. Sigh...

I flew to Chicago for a big alumni get-together with a debating society in which I was actively involved during law school. I stayed with a close friend who's currently a 3L and got to visit some of my old Chicago haunts. I had a blast and didn't get nearly enough sleep. I felt like crying when I had to leave yesterday, the realization hitting me with full force how much I missed being a law student and how different my life is now that I'm in the working world.

In fairness to myself, I absolutely knew that this would happen. I went into my third year with my eyes wide open. I knew, even as someone who had never worked as an honest-to-God adult, that school was something of a scam. Free money and more free time than you have as a legitimate kid -- PLUS the benefits of being a legal adult -- means you can do pretty much whatever the hell you want, consequences be damned. Add to that the fact that I've moved all the way across the country, to a place where I have a few friends but nothing like the numerous close bonds I formed with my fellow students over the last three years in Chicago, and you've got a situation that's simply much less fortunate in many ways, no matter how you look at it. Sure, I'm making real money now -- but I also can't justify deferring responsibility any longer. Bills now have to be paid without emergency recourse to my parents who, wonderfully generous though they are, now recognize me as an adult with her own job and salary. Shoot. The huge chunks of money I borrowed for law school now sit there, serving no purpose but to remind me that the good old days are over, and real life has officially begun.

So life after my first vacation is a little melancholy right now. Obviously there are great benefits to being finished with school and having a job -- and pleaseGodpleasepleasepleasepleaseplease not having to take any more exams, etc. But being a full-time student is something I can never really go back to, short of getting an MBA. And even plenty of MBA students still work. I've used up my student-life points and now I have to move on. And as much as I complained about aspects of school life, I really do miss it. Especially after spending last weekend pretending to be a law student again.

Thank God it's almost Thanksgiving. I need a vacation.