I just turned 24 not one month ago and it’s so strange to feel…how to put it?

Old.

At the firm I’m currently working at, they just hired a ton of recent law school graduates as first year associates and it’s NUTS that some of them are my age. Granted, I spent two years with clients, doing legal research, knowing the ins & outs and all the intricacies of HUD and real estate financing, and being solely responsible for million dollar closings. I spent the past year learning Chinese in Nanjing, travelling throughout the land of Mao, hanging out with people from all over the world and really doing a stand up job of finding what I want and all that jazz. I look back on my life since graduating college and I’m not particularly sad about it. I’m rather proud of what I’ve done and what I’ve learned.

That being said…these people are my age. And they’re lawyers. The firm I work at has a six digit starting salary for first year associates… and I’m a bit torn up inside about that. I’m totally jealous and resentful at them just because that’s what I want. I want to do law school, I want to look back on it as another chapter closed…I’m excited as anything to complete that part and I’m jealous that they’ve already been there and done that.
I was always the youngest person in my class, I graduated early and I was taking graduate level classes my third year in college. While I resented being the youngest while I was 10, as soon as I hit college, I embraced it and was really proud of being the youngest in the room.

I suppose it just hit me that that’s not really how it’s going to be in law school from now on. Though that being said, I wonder how I would’ve been had I gone from college straight to law school. Would I want it as badly as I do now? I’m hungry for the education, for the competition and for the challenge.

I dunno, random musings and all. But yes. I’m hungry for it. I like being the youngest, which I suppose just means that I need to be better and work harder than a lot of people so I can make partner faster than anyone else…