A Change is as Good as a Rest
When I reflect upon my last quarter century as a lawyer one of the most challenging things I faced was practicing law in a way that was healthy for me. The biggest obstacle I had to overcome was my own fairly ridged, idealized image of the way lawyers are "supposed to be".
I grew up on the prairies as the first child in a family of three and carried the flag of my parent's hopes and dreams. I was the first person in my family to go to university. Mom & Dad wanted me to "be somebody". This meant becoming a doctor or lawyer. I complied without giving it too much thought. It seemed like a good idea at the time based on my parent's "story" about lawyers, combined with my own fantasy image based on the latest Perry Mason television series.
My first day as an articling student was the first day I had ever set foot in a law office. Academically, I had meticulously prepared and planned my career; unfortunately I had given little thought to the psychological and social realities of being a lawyer.
As I articled and began to learn the culture of law I could see some disturbing signs of what would happen if I didn't effectively deal with the enormous pressure of being a lawyer. When I looked around "the firm" I was struck by some of the older lawyers who reminded me of Philip Larkin's haunting line “They look like men whose first coronary is coming like Christmas, who drift, loaded helplessly with commitments and obligations and necessary observances into the darkening avenues of age and incapacity, deserted by everything that once made life sweet”. Part of me was concerned this would be me in 15 years, part of me didn't believe it could happen to me.