Go outside (a.k.a, Embracing overabundant life amidst underemployed ennui)

Finding a job is a full-time job, yes, but it's a depressing one that doesn't pay.

So, keep working hard and slamming out those resumes (click here for tips), but for sanity's sake also make sure to claim occasional sick or vacation hours.  It's easy to roll forward with the work-work-work-to-death mentality of law school, but keep in mind that, with school behind you, personal well-being is now a priority. 

And don't be so hard on yourself.  You will find a job.  You will have reason to wear non-bedtime clothes; you will be able to buy a sandwich without evaluating your life savings; and you will visit the doctor without taking out a loan from the bank.  Picture it: you in your snappiest outfit, filling out a W-2, choosing your health care provider, learning where to find extra paper clips, laughing cheerfully with new coworkers.  This is in your future -- for sure.

And when you do land that full-time job, you'll quickly long for a day of skipping the commute, sitting around in your jammies, and thinking "hmm, what shall I do now?"

So, embrace those jammies now, while you have them on, and embrace this strange period as best you can.


But yes, I hear you.  There's a snag.

Problem is, living fancy-free is often not, well, free. Or even cheap.  On top of rent to be paid and food to be scrounged up, there's the question of how to frugally embrace all the long hours of unemployment.  Merely being alive in a non-rural area is expensive, and having social fun can seem unattainably extravagant. 

But fear not.  Here are some suggestions for jazzing up your day, on the cheap.

Make a tea miracle. Source: fred_V

• Tea cozy:  Send out an invite to your unemployed/underemployed friends from law school, for tea.  If you'd like to be uplifting, call it an "employment brainstorming session."  If you're feeling crabby, declare it an "unemployment bitch session."  Suggest a local cafe, or boil some water, buy a $4 box of chamomile, and host.   Make sure to include those nice people you were too busy in law school to hang out with properly -- now's your chance.  (Some of my best friends from law school are people I barely had time to know in school.)  In a scant hour's time, you'll all feel lighter and less isolated, and everyone will love you for being the one to make it happen.
• Cheap urban frolics:  If you live in a city, hit up google for a list of cheap or free events in your area.  Underemployed San Franciscans, for example, can check out:  http://sf.funcheap.com/events/  Excuses begone!  
• Even cheaper nature frolics:  Go to the beach, the forest, or the desert.  Sit.  Look around.  Even if you don't feel like it and would rather stare at the tv mourning your terrible fate, do it at least once.  Slather on some sunscreen and, for an hour, trade your blues for greens, golds, and tans.  Worst, you don't like it.  More likely, you'll remember that this whole "life" thing isn't so bad.  ("Life": noun, that thing that existed prior to law school.)   



Take a hike.     Source: Hawthorne Ave




• Listomania:  Scribble down a list of all the things you wanted to do during law school but didn't have time for.  For example, your listomania poetry might look like so:   

bake muffins

sleep

drive aimlessly down coast until halfway out of gas

tell Aunt Gerty you've decided to go to law school

speed date
learn Italian (imparare l'italiano!)

learn car mechanics

wander a museum

swim

hike all day
movie marathon

eat without reading
attend a local lecture without taking notes

see friends without a clock in hand

There's a theme to these elements, and it is:  you can do them now.  This is your chance!

Before the full-time job finally comes through (and it will), embrace your time.  Make a list, and do everything you couldn't for the last three-plus years.  

Embrace this time, hard as it is.  Yes, you have bills to pay and jobs to hunt down.  But the job will come, and you may never have such a swath of time like this again.

Embrace this crazy, ridiculous, maddening, underemployed moment. Your future money-earning, hard-working self will thank you.

Or, if you prefer...