Friday, February 18, 2011

The thing about attorneys...

We all have friends that slightly irritatingly and to the annoyance of others always have an opinion; it happens to always be an opposing opinion which tends to focus on deciphering every word that was just mentioned in order to get through to the truth, which ends up being ambiguous anyway. (Phew, that was a mouthful). For my friends, that person happens to be me. Although I am sometimes sugarcoated as the United Nations, as I try to bring peace and diplomacy to the mix above.

As an attorney, as if that is a human purpose all on its own, I spend half of the time trying to defend my traits of personality that have nothing to do with being an attorney. The other half, I just want to scream out, SO WHAT?! Embrace your self! (May be Madonna could use that in a Music Video?)Embrace your lawyerlyness! Find happiness with the attorney within you! You deserve it! And so I did.

I am a professional above all. Most importantly, I am a multi-faceted professional with a variety of career goals and lifelong aspirations. What I am beginning to realize is that being an attorney, is like being neat. It is only one aspect of your professional endeavors. One can be neat and creative, funny and detail-oriented, all at the same time. Being an attorney by schooling or training should in no way stop you from pursuing any other aspirations.

Being an attorney is neither better nor worse than being a writer, an advocate, a researcher, a blogger, a painter, a photographer, an inspirational speaker, a business consultant, a program manager, an executive director or a director of a board. I start the journey of embracing and pursuing life, on a professional level, that encompasses all of these titles. Words of wisdom - if you get paid for it, it is no longer a hobby.

My first task, as I embrace my professionalism, is to answer a very practical question. To incorporate or not to incorporate?

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