Work is Hard Work

If I’d known that working was going to be so much work, I’d have stayed in school!

I jest (mostly), but it’s interesting how exhausting it can be to work a job that mainly consists of sitting down.

I haven’t even been given any real work yet. All I’ve had to do is read, watch, and follow my boss around like a dog.

Yet somehow, when I get home from work at 6:15 I’m absolutely beat.

Perhaps it’s just a matter of getting used to it. I haven’t put in a 9 hour shift since last summer. By the end of that, 10 hour days felt routine. I’m sure I’ll reach that point here too eventually.

In the meantime, I do have an approximate end date to look forward to now: April 18th. The 10 month period would be up on March 30th, but factoring in 10 business days for bar studies in November and another few days to be made up over the Christmas holidays, it works out to April 18th. That date may end up being pushed back if my boss gives me a couple of weeks of unpaid leave, but for now that’s the target.

322 days to go.

A Line In The Sand

It feels like I’m about to cross a line in the sand.

Tomorrow I start articling. In theory, this is just the beginning of another job, but it feels like so much more.

Today I’m still a student. Tomorrow I’m not. It’s the end of an era – the only era I’ve ever known, really.

As a student I had flexibility. There were obligations, but how I chose to meet those obligations was almost entirely up to me. I was, in effect, my own boss. I could choose to take a day off every now and then if I needed a breather. I could choose to take the entire first week of a term off to, say, go to Wales.

Tomorrow I have a boss again. That means I can’t even take an afternoon off without permission.

And yeah, I get that that’s how a job works. You get paid to do what someone else tells you to do. I’ve had jobs before, and I’ve had bosses before.

The difference is that this time it’s forever. Every previous job I’ve had finished by the end of August because it was time to go back to school. That’s not the case this time. When September rolls around, I’ll still be working. The same will be true of next September, and the September after that. There are no more summers off to look forward to.

It’s a big line to cross, and I can’t help but feel that I’m not quite ready to make the leap yet.

Positives

With 8 days to go until articling commences, it’s very easy for me to get stuck on all of the things that I’m not looking forward to about the next year of my life.

Rather than focus on all of that here, let’s think positively for a moment. What am I looking forward to?

Perhaps it’s a little sad, but getting paid for my time is the first thing that comes to mind. The last three years have seen my bank accounts move in one general direction, and it’ll be nice to see that trend reversed.

I’m looking forward to having relaxing evenings. Even though the 45 hours per week I’ll have to put in at work far exceeds the hours of class I’ve ever had per week, those hours won’t spill into my evenings and weekends as school always has. No more essays to stress over, no more exams to study for (other than the bars in November).

Looking forward to curling season. Granted, it’s not until October, but it’s something I missed out on this year. It’ll be a good way to fill a winter evening every week.

In the more immediate future, I’m looking forward to seeing some friends again. A lot of them are studying for the June bars in Kingston, so they’ll be in town for a month or so.

As for the work itself, I’m looking forward to seeing just how far I’ve come in terms of being able to handle family law cases. Though my job will largely be criminal law, family is the area I’m most confident in and ultimately it’s the area that I’d like to try and make a career out of.

And ultimately, I’m looking forward to articling being over. Despite all these positives, it’s not going to be an easy stretch for me. But I’ll get through it, and once I do I’ve got plenty of options that I can pursue.

If nothing else, I’ll  have some war stories to tell next April, right?