366 Days
(or, Upon ending a leap year of being a corporate lawyer)
(or, After sharing a bottle of cava with Joiner until 2 am on a Tuesday night)

A year ago, I walked to my first corporate law job, hating every step that took me nearer, heavy of heart and foot. I was the last person to arrive. Only extra-large Firm t-shirts were left. I picked up my name tag and walked into the first day of work as a corporate drone.

Today, I am 2 pounds heavier and about $50,000 lighter of debt. I've met some smart, interesting people. I've done some moderately boring work. I've done some mind-numbingly boring work. I've done some moderately interesting work. I've exceeded expectations and met them. I've begun to delight in New York. I've discovered I'm lonely. I've mended some fences and broken others. I've learned to take things less personally. I've written less in this forum than any other year of the five previous.

I have deliberately begun to stop ending posts with the number of days I'm into this job, because I'm not hating it the way I thought I would, and because on some days, I look around and think, "What a dizzying, lovable city! What a well-paying menial job! What a life!" I have some thoughts about the future. About the present.

It was Rosh Hashanah today/yesterday (it's 2 am, so I'm not sure what to call it, plus I might be drunk), the new year, which seems to me much more appropriately located in the start of fall rather than the beginning of winter. On Saturday, I leave the city I've begun to delight in, for six months in the far east, working in the international capital markets we have left. The world markets are spiraling downward, the U.S. is on its way out of the Empire Club, we have a moose-dressing beauty queen on the ticket, and things are only going to get more interesting. As a partner advised, I'm embracing change. It's about the only thing you can do, if you want to maintain some sanity.