See Monica Practice Law (Continued)

The serial continues…

Title: See Monica Practice Law

Part I: Monica At The Big Firm

Installment 4: 1st Year Associate, 11 Months and Counting

I’m going to do this. I’m going to leave the practice of law and do negotiation training. A little crazy but also really exciting.

It’s a little crazy for a few reasons:

(1) I don’t have much money saved. About 3 months worth of living expenses. But I am living with my older brother rent-free and I can try to scale back on expenses a bit more. Plus, I think my parents could help me out if I needed it.

(2) As I said, my friends who do negotiation training can’t make any promises about the amount of work they can give me. But they know I’m going to be available full-time, so I think if they’ve got work, they’ll think of me. I hope.

At least I’ll be busy in January, teaching the Negotiation Workshop back at Harvard Law and I’m slotted to work on a project for the Citadel doing negotiation/communication/leadership training at the Citadel this fall. So, I’ve got some work.

(3) I’m sure some folks would argue I haven’t really given practicing law a fair shot. I mean I’ve only been at the firm one year. But I just don’t think I can do this anymore. I’ve tried really hard to shift my thinking—be grateful for this job, the work will probably get more interesting as you advance, just stick it out for a few years and pay down your loans, stop being such a whiny baby—but nothing’s worked. It’s getting harder and harder to get up and come in this office every day.

I’ve been reading all these books that say something like, if you take a leap of faith, doors will open. I hope and pray they’re right. This is scary.

But it’s also really exciting. Maybe it sounds silly but I’ve got this vision of myself waking up on a Monday morning. The sky is bright blue, and birds are chirping. I stretch happily knowing that I’m not coming in to the office but working out of my home and doing work that I love.

And just think, this will be my life in a matter of weeks.