<p>There’s a tendency (more pronounced when we’re young) to think, “if only ‘X’ would happen, I’d be set for life.” </p>
<p>Once you’ve accomplished a number of your personal X’s, you realize that your belief that any one of them would leave you set for life was a delusion. Getting into the college of your choice doesn’t mean everything will fall into place for the rest of your life. Getting the girl of your dreams doesn’t mean you’ll live happily ever after. Getting into a top law school doesn’t mean you’ll get the job of your dreams, or that it will remain the job of your dreams if you do.</p>
<p>It’s important to take the long view of these matters, but that can be misleading. A quarter of a century ago, my law school was cheap; my student loan payments were within a dollar a month of equaling the payments for my first new car (which came without air conditioning, a radio, or an automatic transmission). Results may very.</p>
<p>I’ve experienced brief periods of unemployment, longer periods of underemployment, recessions, and liquidity crises (societal and personal). I’ve experienced downturns and upturns, a broken heart, and marital bliss. I know what it’s like to be young and feel adrift, and I know what it’s like to be middle aged and feel established. There were days when I was still in law school when I wondered what I was doing there. But there hasn’t been a day since I graduated that I would have wanted to trade places with a version of myself without a J.D.</p>