As McJagger Says...

Isn't it a Murphy's Law that you always want what you don't have, the grass is always greener, or something like that? Well those trite sayings have never been so true as with me. When I was practicing law I would look at people working at their jobs, my legal assistant, a clerk, a banker, whatever, and envy their 9-5. They could come in 5 days a week, do a fairly unchallenging, stress free job for 8 hours and then go home. I always figured they had lives, they had families they actually got to spend time with. They ate dinner before 9:30pm. Even though their paychecks were far less than staggering, I envied the free time those people had.

But now that I work as a career service counselor in an unchallenging, stress free 9-5job I find myself envying others yet again. Not that I want the life of a practicing lawyer again, hell no. But one of my coworkers who hails from top 100 firm world is now finding herself traveling frequently to conferences, hobnobbing with the hiring partners of top 100 firms, going out for cocktails and using their guest offices. So as my life becomes filled with baby preparation and I won't be reacquainted with a cocktail for another 7 months (at least), my coworker's travels sure sound sexy. Her Friday night involved a hiring partner hitting on her and offering her a job, my Friday night involved cooking dinner, taking a nap, and watching tv on the couch. It's not that my life is awful, or that I'm really complaining about it, I'm not. I'm merely highly aware of the differences as she regales me with tales of her exciting business travel.

I have always wanted the happy family; a great husband, nice house, some dogs, and a kid or two. I will have the whole picture next spring when our little one joins us and I couldn't be more excited. But while most of me can't wait for the world of stay at home mommy-dom, there is a part of me that is screaming "wait! i want the sexy professional life still!" Since I don't live in a major metropolitan area I know I cannot have both.

So I am embarking on a new mission, a new lesson (which is going to be damn hard): learning to be satisfied. Every time I think about things I want or wish I could have, I am going to make myself also think about two things that are really great about my life as it is and be excited about how it will be. The grass won't be greener on someone else's lawn, instead we'll all have AstroTurf.