[alsetmusic]

This made me think about a moment that brought me a bit more understanding of the plight of my friend, also an ivy league lawyer. We were teasing each other about how we both worked for companies that the other thought brought little value to the world and I made the tired "blood suckers" remark about lawyers. She got quiet and said, more to herself than to me, "Except for those of us who were idealists ready to change the world until we had to sell our souls to eat." At her firm, the biggest client was a well known and widely disliked arms manufacturer and I'd already gathered that she felt at odds with herself about serving them, but this was the moment when I realized that she probably spent a lot of time wondering if she'd made a smart decision by getting into the field. Because of the student loans, she didn't feel she had any choice but to see it through. It was a sad thought.