Mamas don't let your sons grow up to be cowboys....
I always loved history and politics, from about the third grade on. I was going to major in math and I wanted a second major. I decided economics over history, because I thought if I became a politician (which I did in a fashion) I would understand the economy better. I of course missed out on a lot of great history courses while in college. Economics is interesting, but college and graduate level economics courses are foundational. The real stuff occurs with the best economists.
Pursuing my dream, I went to law school after getting in everywhere I applied. I was fulfilled in a career sense. I loved law school, most of my professors, and especially the intellectual and life curiousity of my fellow students.
Little did I know that all that was a fantasy. That the real world of the law was a long, tough grind. "The law is a jealous mistress." And that lawyers are by and large quite egotistical and somewhat difficult to get along with (unlike mathematicians, in general). I have slogged my way through for years, and my friends would say that what I do is admirable - even prestigious in some sense. I on the other hand am tired of the tedium, the heirarchy, the personal toll doing a case right takes on me. Just today, added hours of pouring over some documents for yet the third or fourth time led me to discover some key fact. But as Yeats said, "Blear-eyed wisdom is not born out of midnight oil." In many respects I am a technician. I see a problem and I know what it will take to handle correctly. The question often is, do I have the energy or feel the obligation (which is the really bad question I face).
I have noticed that doing the right thing in life does not seem to be highly correlated with personal success, happiness, or any other sort of reward. It is goodness for goodness sake. That is the most that can be said of it. And at this point in my life, I would like a little bit, a wee bit, of self reward. I suppose I do economically ok. I am finally at a point of not worrying about my budget really.
More later. In the meantime, mamas don't let your babies grow up to be lawyers.
I always loved history and politics, from about the third grade on. I was going to major in math and I wanted a second major. I decided economics over history, because I thought if I became a politician (which I did in a fashion) I would understand the economy better. I of course missed out on a lot of great history courses while in college. Economics is interesting, but college and graduate level economics courses are foundational. The real stuff occurs with the best economists.
Pursuing my dream, I went to law school after getting in everywhere I applied. I was fulfilled in a career sense. I loved law school, most of my professors, and especially the intellectual and life curiousity of my fellow students.
Little did I know that all that was a fantasy. That the real world of the law was a long, tough grind. "The law is a jealous mistress." And that lawyers are by and large quite egotistical and somewhat difficult to get along with (unlike mathematicians, in general). I have slogged my way through for years, and my friends would say that what I do is admirable - even prestigious in some sense. I on the other hand am tired of the tedium, the heirarchy, the personal toll doing a case right takes on me. Just today, added hours of pouring over some documents for yet the third or fourth time led me to discover some key fact. But as Yeats said, "Blear-eyed wisdom is not born out of midnight oil." In many respects I am a technician. I see a problem and I know what it will take to handle correctly. The question often is, do I have the energy or feel the obligation (which is the really bad question I face).
I have noticed that doing the right thing in life does not seem to be highly correlated with personal success, happiness, or any other sort of reward. It is goodness for goodness sake. That is the most that can be said of it. And at this point in my life, I would like a little bit, a wee bit, of self reward. I suppose I do economically ok. I am finally at a point of not worrying about my budget really.
More later. In the meantime, mamas don't let your babies grow up to be lawyers.