For the past 5 years and 10 months, I lived life in 6 minutes increments.
That is how we Wall Street corporate lawyers “do,” billing clients one-tenth of an hour at a time. No, I did not work every waking moment, but my mind was always tethered to the Blackberry, evenings, weekends, always. Even during vacations, I was programmed to check hourly whether my Blackberry had the blinking red light indicating a new email.
The blinking red light often elicited an emotional rollercoaster because there was always a chance that it represented an email staffing me to a new deal, or some other work email, that could mean no evenings or weekends — and even a few all-nighters — for the foreseeable future. But if it turned out to be just junk email, I’d feel embarrassingly happy.
Well, tethered no more. I resigned, quit, retired…
No longer chained to the Blackberry, but also no longer connected to the umbilical cord that feeds me bi-weekly paychecks. It is uncomfortable and scary to step into an unstructured and unplanned path, but I am excited to explore all the possibilities that might maximize my happiness.
Today is my first day as an “unemployed” person and I am starting this blog. I expect to encounter a variety of emotions over the next couple of months. I am sure I will feel liberated (like this morning, I didn’t have to figure out what clothes to wear), but will also have doubts and boredom and anxiety.
I want to use this blog as a scratchpad to jot down my musings of my past life as a corporate lawyer, my reflections of my career-changing or career-ending decision and, most importantly, my journey to figure out whether the things I fantasized about in the wee hours while stuck at the office are mirages or potential realities.
If you have any reaction to anything I posted, please comment. I’d love to hear your thoughts. In the meantime, stay tuned (and subscribe to my RSS feed)!