Day 24: Challenge

Day 24:  What challenge are you grateful for?

I am grateful for the challenge of graduating law school without a job.  I was one of only a handful of my hundreds of classmates who didn't have a job lined up when we crossed the stage in May.  In some ways, this was expected - I was looking for a non-profit job, while most of my classmates were going to corporate law firms or judicial clerkships, and the hiring process for both of those jobs happens several months in advance, while non-profits tend to hire right when they need someone and have the funding.  However, it was disheartening and scary to have worked so hard and racked up a six figure student loan debt only to graduate without employment lined up.  I did what my classmates were doing that summer - I studied for and took the bar exam - and meanwhile, I continued to apply for legal jobs as they became available, and prayed hard.  When it got to August, I started looking for any kind of job that was available, including but not limited to driving an ice cream truck - anything to pay the bills until a real lawyer job presented itself.  In that last week of looking before I needed to start at any job that was available and would have me, my dream job became available.  I would get to work on causes I believed in, doing a variety of interesting work (class action litigation, policy research, and a smorgasboard of other things), with people who I respected, admired, and got along well with.  I couldn't have come up with a better fit if I got to write the job description myself.  If this job would have become available back in May, when I was graduating and so eager to have a job lined up, I (probably) couldn't have been hired because I wouldn't be available until after taking the bar exam in July.  If this job became available later, I likely would have already started somewhere else.  But as it turned out, the timing was perfect.  I'm grateful for this challenge because it was a growing opportunity:  a chance to trust God and see how the wait worked out for my good, to become more patient, and to learn not to care so much if my path looked different than other people's paths.