Soooo....

[JWBear]

...And then GC gets a towel to wipe the beer off the hunk's thickly muscled thigh; His hand inching upward......


Boy, it sure is getting warm in here all of a sudden....

[Prudence]

1) I am the primary "bread-winner" in my family. With that position comes responsibility that I take seriously. My employment actions have impact beyond my own individual life.

2) My fertility (assuming I have any) is not indefinite. Financial choices I make now affect whether or not I, primary bread-winner, can support a family. Dreams may still be there when I'm done spawning, but the reverse is not necessarily true. Not having to start my legal career now means that I need not worry about waiting a few more years before attempting to foist off-spring upon an unsuspecting world. (Although now that I've mentioned it, the world is officially on notice.)

3) I have a spouse who is entitled to a say in my future plans. While he supports my decision, whatever it is, he also has waited patiently while I finished two graduate degrees, and is eager to start on his own education. I could not enjoy a dream seized at someone else's expense.

4) Name-calling and insults are not helpful. They are not "tough love". Cruelty is cruelty, no matter what justification one might assign. I am aware that I do not have the same level of coping skills that other people have. Sometimes "quitting" is what is required for me to continue to wake up in the morning and carry on the Activities of Daily Living that are normally expected of an adult. If my immediate choices are quitting a job search or quitting life, I'm strong enough to chose the former. Perhaps some day I will be stronger. I am not able to predict the future.

5) I've re-written my cover letter and am submitting another application just as a special favor for all of you. No, that's not true. Yes, I've re-written it, but only because I had an "inspiration" of how to tie my MLIS and JD together into a cohesive academic pathway. I'm submitting it for a position I have less than no chance of getting, but I'm submitting it any way so that I have a deadline to get the revised cover letter completed.

6) I still have an application pending with the Presidential Management Fellows program. The program is not law-specific, so perhaps the decision makers will be less concerned with which law school I attended. (It's for any graduate degree, and my MLIS is from the 4th ranked school, so if ranking of degree-granting school is important, perhaps my MLIS will serve that purpose.) According to my conversation with John McKay (yes, that John McKay. I move in such lofty circles.) the PMF folks are "blessed people", so perhaps that will be an avenue to success.

7) This is the last public mention I will make of my future employment plans.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming, already in progress: "Vegemite and bacon - peerless pleasure or unholy union".

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Please excuse my unabashed honesty, but that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Like there aren't any legal jobs to be had? Like every single company, governmental body, and individual doesn't use the help of legal people? You have to be fvcking kidding me.

Your inner censor seems to have grown so large and hideous I can smell it from here. Stand up for yourself, woman. Get out there and job hunt. Kick your censor's ass and grow some self respect, for god's sake. You worked your body to shreds to get your degree, so you obviously want to do this with your life. Well, get out and do it!

Seriously, get your sh.t together, you sound ridiculous. I only say this because you're obviously an intelligent person who deserves to treat themselves better - with more pride, with more enthusiasm. It's so much easier to quit - what are you, a quitter? Here's your tough love, now take that anger I know you're already feeling and use it for some good.

I'd wish you luck, but luck is bullsh1t. I wish you the stamina in the face of failure. I wish you hard work and the rewards it brings. Go forth and kick ass.

I had intended to respond to this before Pru's post above.

I am not sure what drove you to post these comments. We all know how hard Pru has worked and the levels of disappointment that she has dealt with. Obviously Pru has reached a point where she felt that she needed to move on. She was being honest with us, her friends, and needs our support - not our scorn.

While you may have done something different, the remarks quoted were uncalled for. Your intent was to motivate, but the remarks were over the top.

[Alex]

I don't know the history behind how you came to have an MLIS but not be in that profession (no judgment from me, I did the same), but is there any chance/interest in pursuing legal librarianship?

I understand where CP is coming from. There is a pretty jarring chasm between "Yay! I gratuated! I'm a J.D.!" one weekend and then a couple days later "It has been three days since I graduated and I still don't have a top notch job so I'm done, I quit."

But, if you started this path because it seemed worthwhile even if it didn't go anywhere or you knew that it was only tenable if you came out the otherside with a plum posting since you can't afford the typical life of a recent law school grad (booking 120 billable hours per week while making almost nothing and sticking your tongue so far up the associates ass that you can taste what they had for breakfast) then it would appear to be a gamble that hasn't paid off.

I don't know nearly enough about you, your personal situation, and your history to have any opinion on how appropriate it all is. But purely from an outsider perspective, the surface veneer does look to be on the whiny and defeatist side so I can see the urge to try and get you to stand straight, look in the mirror, and see how you're sabotaging yourself before you've even made a start.

But if you say it is a well considered course of action, then that is good enough for me. Hopefully, even if you aren't able to pursue a directly legal career you are able, as I did with my MLIS, to put yourself on a new unexpected path that is well informed by the knowledge and experience you've gained.

[Disneyphile]

I just ate some bacon.

Figured I'd condition my body now for all the NYE celebratin'.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Disneyphile

I just ate some bacon.

Well I hope you brought enough for everone.

[Disneyphile]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

Well I hope you brought enough for everone.

No. But, I still have some Hickory Farms Beef Stick (i.e. sausage) in the fridge.

[BarTopDancer]

I have bacon on the stove right now :P

[Disneyphile]

I wonder if anyone will make a bacon martini tonight.

[Not Afraid]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

I had intended to respond to this before Pru's post above.

I am not sure what drove you to post these comments. We all know how hard Pru has worked and the levels of disappointment that she has dealt with. Obviously Pru has reached a point where she felt that she needed to move on. She was being honest with us, her friends, and needs our support - not our scorn.

While you may have done something different, the remarks quoted were uncalled for. Your intent was to motivate, but the remarks were over the top.

I disagree. Good friends will pull your covers because they can see more clearly the quagmire you've gotten yourself into. I probably would be in a much WORSE place if it wasn't for the hard reality some of my friends make me look at. I don't think there is anyone here who doesn't support Pru, but some of us see the defeatist attitude as a giant wall that needs to be dismantled IF she doesn't want to be the failure whe calls herself. Of course, there's a problem right there - if you really think you're a failure, then you're going to BE a failure. And, if that's the choice a person makes, than all of the hard conversations and internet hugs aren't going to make any difference. Obviously, there are people who think there is still a road to success open and really despise the blanket hopelessness that has been in evidence.

Sometimes, in order to make changes in your life, YOU have to be the one that changes. But, in the long run, if a person doesn't want to change and chooses to reamain sitting in the mire, then there's nothing anyone can do about it. There is no magic want that will make changes. You have to trudge that road yourself and never look back.

I learned the hard way and all I can do is share my own experiences and what worked for me. Feel free to disagree.