Work

I had a great legal career and I had the experience of being the first woman to do the job. And that's not an uncommon thing with women of my age. I’m 71 now and for example, when I went to Boston to find a job after law school, the [jobs] classifieds were still listed in columns, women and men.  Or female and male or something like that: classifieds female, classifieds male. And so, because it was just that time, so many of my jobs were [pause] they hadn't come across women before.  And so, my first job as a public defender, which I wanted that job very badly because by then I had done clinical education at my law school. I had gone to court as a student, a supervised student, and I thought I loved that. I thought that's really great stuff and I wanted to do criminal law because it sounded exotic. [laughs] I didn't know anything about it, it just sounded like, “That's pretty cool, I'll do that.” And so I applied and I did get the job, but the person who told me—I was interviewed a bunch of times by the person who was the decision-maker guy and he said to me, “You know, I don't think women can be trial lawyers [laughs] but we need to start hiring some women so we're going to hire you and send you out to Springfield where they never had a woman so good luck.”

I loved mentoring new nurses. I loved telling them every trick of the trade, and everything they can forget about, and make them fast, and make them smart. Precepting was really something I really loved.

I decided that in my thirties—I turned 30 this year—that I wanted to have my own business. I'd always admired people who ran their own business and I read a lot, tons of interviews on ‘how do creatives have their own business’? How do you make the leap from working for someone and having full-time security to being out on your own? And everyone seemed to be able to figure that out by their early thirties and they never talk about it an interview, but they seem to get it together. I've just always had it in my mind, that I'm going to get it together to do that in my thirties. So somehow, I did that magic and .... it's just nice to close out this time of leading from within a company to going to lead out on my own, as my own proprietor so to speak. 

I am, in a one-liner my friend wrote an article about, which is the best line I ever heard, “I am, it is an honor and it is humbling to be invited into people’s lives at the highest moments, the most joyful moments, and the lowest moments.” And I get to do that. People invite me in because of my position and it’s really an honor and humbling.

I can’t even tell you what triggered it, besides my mom telling me that I liked to argue, but I always said, “I’m going to law school, I’m going to be a lawyer.” I [now work] in estate planning , where I don’t even see a courtroom.  Estate planning is very detailed work…but I think it gives people peace of mind…It just makes people feel like, “Okay, I know when I leave, everything is taken care of, I don’t have to worry about that.” [My children] saw my work ethic because they knew a lot of times when they went to bed, I was going to work [at home]. It was probably the best fit ever, because I was able to work from home when my kids were little.