The Great Change: Turning Cathy into a Lawyer

There's a significant learning curve to figuring out the Golden Gate Transit bus schedule. After several bus-riding attempts that had me arriving in different places and times than I had expected, I now seem to have settled on a few lines that pass near where I live and get me to where I want to go in the city roughly when I want to get there (at least for the moment; if I decide I want to be there at a different time, I might need different buses...). However, I much prefer the ferry, even though it is a 40 minute walk from my home and therefore ends up being a much longer commute. For example, to be in the city by 9am, I can either leave the house by 8-8:10 to catch an 8:20 bus towards downtown, or I can leave at 7:30-7:40 to catch an 8:20 ferry. Sleepy inertia prompts me to take the bus, but joie de vivre prompts me to do the ferry. It's a pleasant walk, and the boat is so much nicer than sitting in traffic (although the commute over the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most lovely commutes ever). Unfortunately there's only a limited boat schedule, so I'm going to end up on the bus quite a lot as well.

This month it won't be so often; there's really not much going on in December so it's hard to find proper work. I'll keep sending out resumes, but it looks like I'll mostly be working in my friend's office 2-3 days a week since, as far as I can tell, he's the only lawyer in San Francisco who actually wants to get business done this month. And that will be ok for me. I won't get rich, but I will be able to pay my rent without dipping into savings for the first time in ages.

And it is interesting being there, doing real lawyerly work. OK, technically glorified law clerk work - I can't practice without a license anyway, and I've gone so far as to see how "practice of law" is defined in California (it's different in every state) in order to make sure I don't have a problem with anything I'm doing there (I don't) - but in a firm environment, and practicing skills that will be of use to me later in my career. I spent three days there this week, the longest streak of employment continuity in a long time, and as a result I can feel the wheels turning. I feel much more empowered, more so every day. There's still a ton to learn, but for the first time it feels like it matters. It's not even like a summer clerkship, where I learn things for the moment and then go back to being a student in a couple weeks and forget them all. Now I feel like I'm building up to something important.

However, in other traumatic news, I just got my first bill for my loan repayment. Yikes...