PERSONAL BRANDING – When I was 24

When I was 24, I was single, broke, and childless.

—All I said to myself was, ‘I can’t wait to finish law school & start making money,’ and ‘I long to get married and have children.’

When I was 34, we had 3 girls under age 5.

—We paid for 1 full-time nanny & 2 full-time daycare programs, at an after-tax cost of ~80K annually. I worked 2700 hours in BigLaw.
—All I said to myself was, ‘I can’t wait for the girls to go off to public school,’ and ‘I long to be able to stop working so hard.’

When I was 44, we had 3 tweens who couldn’t drive themselves anywhere.

—We’d amassed 10 years of childcare debt and still lived with a full-time nanny. I was still grinding in BigLaw, albeit less so.
—All I said to myself was, ‘I can’t wait for the girls to be old enough to drive themselves,’ and ‘I long to retire.’

***
This year, I’ll turn 54. We’ve long-since turned debt into savings, I work for myself (much, much less), and we live in an empty nest.

Although I might say to myself, ‘I can’t wait for grandchildren,’ and ‘I long for Matt to retire,” (indeed, both are true), that isn’t the full truth.

The full truth is that there were wonderful things at 24, 34, and 44, and I didn’t take enough time to live in the moment and soak those things in. I was too busy looking for that next, so-called “better” stage.

So now, I’m soaking in all the good things that do come with this age. There’s no sense waiting and longing for the next stage. It will come, soon enough.

And so, if you’re like me, at 24, 34, 44, waiting and longing for that next stage, please pause and reflect. Soak in the good things—all of them—fully. Your next stage will come, soon enough.

#Dear1L
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