Blog Every Day in May: Day Sixteen

Day 16, Thursday: Something difficult about your "lot in life" and how you're working to overcome it

First off, this topic can get us dangerously close to complaining, and that's not what I try to do here, or put out into the world. I don't want it to be a poor-me post, because I know I am blessed in this world where the multitudes of have-nots often don't get a passing thought. The fact I'm blessed enough to have a computer on which to blog, a home, a loving family, a paycheck, and the use of all my limbs, and I live in a country with individual freedoms means there's really no place for a poor-me post.

I do not live in a war-torn nation, I make more than $1 a day. I am not separated from my family, I have not lost everything I own to an explosion. But I do want more. I want to be able to help those that do. I just don't know how.

I double majored in international studies and Spanish, focusing on international development. In law school I focused on international law, human rights law, and international humanitarian law.  However, right now I have a lovely law school debt and the the international law/human rights/NGO world seems to only want those who can work for free (I can't) or who have 5-7 years experience (I don't).

Meanwhile, I am utilizing my law license in a job that gives me opportunities to become a litigator, but that's never what I wanted to do with my law degree. And then I feel guilty for having a job others want more, I feel guilty for checking job sites and searching for job openings when I have down time at work, I feel guilty for spending time blogging or playing on a rec team, or going to the gym instead of trying to figure out what it would take to advance my career, or find opportunities to help others, even if it's not to my benefit, which really should be the motivation anyway.

So I guess what makes it difficult is that I know I need a change, but I have no idea how to go about making that change. In a last-ditch effort not for this not to become a poor-me post here's some quotes about how to approach the rest of today:

I made this one myself =), quote from The Muppet Christmas Carol