MOST EXHILARATING MOMENT

Someone in a recent comments thread asked me to talk more about the time I spent working as a secretary in London.  That period was perhaps the most fun six months I have ever spent.  I don't have time at the moment to recount all my adventures, but I do want to comment on how very glad I was that I took a year to just travel and work before law school.

The year I graduated from college, I was feeling burnt out.  I was very nerdy, so I had gotten in the habit of taking five courses per semester rather than only four, just because there were so many classes I wanted to take.  Plus, I was involved in competitive athletics.  I knew that I very much wanted to go to law school, and I had already been admitted, but the prospect of yet another grinding academic year right away seemed most unpleasant.  I felt as though my brain was exhausted.

So I deferred my admission to law school for a year, and tried to figure out what I would do with myself for fifteen months.  I looked into possibly working as a paralegal somewhere for a year but that didn't seem feasible.  No one wants a paralegal who is going to leave after a year.  I was starting to get a little desperate, envisioning myself living in my parents' basement for a year. But then I learned about a visa exchange program whereby young people from the U.S. could get work visas for other countries in Europe, and Europeans, in turn, could get work visas for the U.S.  A close friend of mine and I decided we would spend the year in England (a 6 month visa) and Ireland (a 4 month visa), working at whatever jobs we could find and having fun.

Our parents thought this was the stupidest idea they'd ever heard.  "Don't you know there is a rampant unemployment problem in England?!?!?  Why on earth do you think anyone would hire you?"  they said.  My friend's mother approached my parents to try to find a way to "stop" us from going.  But we were determined. 

The first issue, though, was how to come up with the money to fund our trip. My parents gave me one thousand dollars as a graduation present, but I thought for some reason that I would need a lot more money than that. So my friend and  I hatched an even more hare-brained scheme to spend the summer working on either a fishing boat or in a canning factory in Alaska.  In those days, and probably today too, these fisheries and canning factories advertised in college newspapers promising big bucks to people willing to do hard manual labor 12 - 15 hours a day.  I remember one afternoon the week after graduation spending hours at the phone calling Alaska to try to find jobs for us.  The problem was that it was too late to get a job and the most anyone could promise was that there might be a position available if we flew out there first.  And it turned out that my friend had no money at all to even get out there, and even my $1000 might not be enough.  In retrospect, I think we were probably lucky to miss out on what I am sure would have been an utterly miserable and possibly dangerous experience.   

So I spent the summer indeed living in my parents' basement, working as a secretary, and salting away my money. I sent a number of resumes to American law firms in London and had an exciting time making international calls to inquire about jobs.  Unfortunately, no one wanted to hire me sight unseen.  I was going to have to go over there with no guaranteed job.   By the end of the summer, I had three thousand dollars in the bank and I was ready to go.  My friend, unfortunately, wanted to wait several more months before leaving, so I went off without her.  I bought a ticket to Dallas to visit my grandmother first and then another ticket from Dallas to London. 

I remember quite vividly arriving at the airport in London.  I remember riding down an escalator and thinking, "I  have no place to live, no job, no friends in London, and only one thousand dollars to see me through.  I don't know a soul here and no one is expecting me.  I could go anywhere and do anything and no one would know."  I had been planning to go to a particular youth hostel.  But the wild thought crossed my mind to hop on a train to Scotland, or spend hundreds of dollars on an expensive meal at some fancy-shmancy place, or spend all night in a club somewhere.  Of course, I did the sensible thing, got settled in at the hostel, made friends with some Americans there, and got myself an apartment with some roommates within 24 hours.  But I will never forget the exhilaration I felt as I stood on that escalator in the airport, feeling absolutely free and alone in the world.  It was perhaps one of the happiest moments of my life. 

I did go on to have a wonderful time working as a secretary in the heart of London and a perhaps slightly less wonderful time milking cows on a farm in Ireland.  I had fun and my work wasn't that stressful.  By the time it was time for me to start law school, my brain was refreshed and recharged.  I wish I could do it again now!

Comments

[miller_schloss]

Would your firm allow you to take a sabbatical of sorts like college teachers do?

[The Happy Feminist]

Wouldn't that be nice . . . but no, at least not at my level. And I doubt my husband would be too keen on the idea either. (He doesn't really to travel and I doubt I could get away with saying, "I am off to Italy for the year, honey. See you in 12 months! Don't forget to feed the dog!")

[Clare]

LOVED this story!

[L.]

Wow -- I had a nearly identical moment! I arrived in Tokyo, went to a youth hostel, and thought -- "I have no place to live, no job, no friends in Tokyo, and only one thousand dollars (same amount as you) to see me through. I don't know a soul here and no one is expecting me. I could go anywhere and do anything and no one would know."

[cheap r4i]

Hi,
Wonderful story.I also shared it with my friends.They liked it a lot.The sinking of the Titanic is by far the most exhilarating moments I have ever seen on screen.