On the way

I am the first to admit that I am still a bit of an adolescent even at my advanced age. Of course, I haven’t had to grow up due to having kids of my own or been forced into some realm of respectability. But I have been wondering about the path that I have taken. The thing is that here in Quebec people can go into law school directly out of high school. In the rest of North America you typically have to do a different degree first.

What this amounts to is that most people start their law careers when they are around 26 while here there are lawyers in Quebec that start this job at the rip old age of 21. To me, starting my life as a lawyer at 31 was early enough. And I honestly feel for these young people in many ways. My twenties were a time of enjoying university, traveling around the world and just generally getting into trouble. For them, it is long hours of hard school followed by long hours of intense work.

Now, my debt is certainly higher, and at their age my income was undeniably lower, but there is a huge drawback over trying to get life started so early. You tend to miss out on a lot of amazing things. And when you are younger you are ready to experience things that are not so pleasant to contemplate when you are older. Lets just say that there are certain places that I stayed at when I was living in India that I wouldn’t even consider staying in now. I guess I have become more of a princess as I have gotten older.

But it is difficult as well for me to accept sometimes that the path chosen by others is not the better one. I try to remain optimistic over where I have come from and where it has lead me to. I could started my adult life at a much earlier age, but so much would be different today. And I tremble at the thought of losing some of it.