I would be lying if I said I felt motivated to do any work last week. There were 2 procurements I had been running, - both of them are very tough- 20 files sitting on my desk waiting to be completed and so many things I was supposed to take care of before I left for Dubai. (Not to mention that I still didn’t get my visa to Oman so our long - weekend idea seemed to be cracked up -) I have really had enough of work and I have never felt so strongly about this before.
After a hard day at work, Adel - my friend, who is also a lawyer - and I decided to catch up at a pub and drink away our sorrows. After discussing how to deal with the latest modification of the Hungarian Act on public procurement (very inspiring...) we had a couple of drinks and then a couple more drinks, and then we decided the world would be a better place if:
- More women stayed at home to bring up kids, instead of going to work and get stressed.
- If they can’t stay at home, because bringing up kids does not satisfy them mentally, they should only take part-time job offers so as to have some free time left for housework and kids.
- We should quit working as lawyers and start our own business by opening an ice cream shop/restaurant/pub/grocery/laundry.
I got home early that night but could not fall asleep. I felt bad because of these thoughts. And this time the feeling lingered for a while.
A couple of years ago we decided to go to the law school because we believed in something. Fighting for people you like, providing pro-bono legal assistance for the ones who are down, in fact, just winning a legal trial is a pretty good feeling. We wanted to do this, even if it was really hard to get our “qualifying” degree, but we knew that this was the price to be paid when we chose to become lawyers.
How can we become more useful parts of this society? By winning legal trials, selling ice creams or bringing up kids (of course nice, brave and intelligent ones:) and doing housework? I had put this question to myself several times and still didn’t know the answer... I think somehow I felt sorry for myself and wanted to swap my life for another one.
But a couple of days later, I felt much better and it might have had something to do with the fact that I won a trial, finished my procurements and bought some really nice clothes, including a pair of new shoes. (If diamonds are the girl’s best friend then clothes and shoes must be our buddies:)
Neither Adel nor I resigned from our jobs - however it could be a really gutsy move - but agreed about taking it easy: working less, (and stop feeling guilty if we leave work on time) thinking positively (avoid angry people) and doing activities and hobbies which relax us. So yesterday - as a first step to create our new lives - we went back to the pub, but this time we didn’t determine anything, we just listened to the music and had fun...
