There you are one day: buying law books from a 24-year old outside a pizza shop. She turns the corner with 8 heavy softcover bar review books, half of which are in her boyfriend's arms (both of them look about seventeen). No worries though, because you've brought your guy too. The guy you married in June. Six feet two, and full of more love than you ever imagined would come in a partnership. You've been in that place - that sweet home, sweet life - for two years. But before that...
Maybe you spent your first 34 years of life on a rather solitary bent, with a twist of workaholism. Maybe you went back to school around 26, got a law degree, practiced litigation for four years, drove home after 9 pm pretty much daily from work.
And now, the balancing trick. Arms out on a tightrope. The pull of the past on one side, the pull of the very different present, on the other. And you'll take that bar exam, because that's where you live now. This state, his state, is now your state. Well, who are we kidding - it was kind of your state before, too. You went to undergrad here, and worked here for five years after that. You have old friends here who were happy you moved BACK. So, it's your state, too. The state where, in 2008, when the economy burst, was difficult to find work in-house, which is the kind that doesn't necessarily require the bar of the state you're living in.
How would you feel? Taking the bar exam after months and months of unemployment. Indeed after two years of working contract jobs which were much less stressful and intellectually rigorous than the law firm work you had done previously. How would you feel taking on this challenge?
Well... I, personally, would feel a tiny bit afraid. A bit excited. A bit confused and concerned about becoming who I was - too focused on work - and the strain that could put on a fledgling marriage. But that's just me.
