I Travel To Escape Being A Lawyer | How To De-Stress From Work

Do you remember that scene from the movie The Office where the main character says that every day is the worst day of his life while he’s at work?  Well, that’s kind of what it’s like being a lawyer.  Every day is worse than the day before, and therefore every day is the worst day of your life.  Am I being melodramatic?  Yes and no.

Don’t get me wrong.  I didn’t go to law school to be some champion of “helping people” or “fighting against the system to protect the little guy” (no offense Marco Rubio).  I went to law school because my goal was to have ten letters beside my name with my third degree and to ultimately use my law degree to help me protect myself when doing business.  After law school though, what was supposed to be just a few years of practicing law turned into more years than I anticipated.  Time just has a funny way of passing by really quick.  At the beginning I didn’t mind it though because it is in my nature to want to help people…the only problem is that sort of personality can work against you as a lawyer.

So what’s the problem with being a lawyer?  A lot.  And if you think I’m being a wimp about all of this, then consider the alarming statistics related to how many attorneys have substance abuse issues, marital problems, the fact that lawyers are 3.6 times more likely to suffer from depression and even more likely to commit suicide.  All of these stats I can say I’ve witnessed first hand among my colleagues, many of whom quit the profession within three or four years.

If you’re thinking about practicing law, consider what the bulk of your job will be.  Your job will be to get paid to suffer the stress of other people’s problems and mistakes.  In a way, you are a kind of prostitute because you’re getting paid to do something that you probably won’t really want to do in some cases.  If you think most of the time it’s going to be Kumbaya kind of stuff with your clients, you’re seriously wrong.  Often, your clients can be unreasonable jerks with no sense of logic, respect, or understanding of instructions.  What they don’t teach you in law school is that often your own clients are the enemy – not opposing counsel or the opposing client.

As much as I will continue to write about my travels, this blog is about real life which includes the things we do to be able to finance our travels.  I’m all about the #laptoplifestyle and work on it every day via Travel Teez, but at the same time I think it’s wise for us to have a dialogue about career choices.  Ultimately, travel is about having a good quality of life.  An amazing quality of life, in fact.  Choosing the wrong career can impede if not altogether obstruct your ability to travel so please choose wisely.  I hope as you read about the profession I’m in, you will gain some insight about what is really important to you, and how you may better choose a career that is more conducive to not only just your personality, but also your long-term goals.

So stay tuned fellow wanderlusters!  In the coming months you’ll read about my journeys from business school to law school.  My goal is that someone out there will learn something that will help them in their career path.

Bon voyage.