Travel blog - San Francisco

I'm sitting at the gate at the San Francisco airport, waiting to board my flight to Narita. It's been hell trying to get on a flight. my expedia cheap ticket to Newark was cancelled less than 12 hours before take off. I only found out about the cancellation when I tried to check in, and noticed that the ticket had a Friday departure date instead of Thursday. A few hours on the phone finally got me booked on a flight to San Francisco, but the agent wasn't able to confirm it right away as there had been too many rebooking. I never got an official reason for the cancellation, but I would suspect it has something to do with the storm in the northeast US.

I would like to feel exhilarated but in fact, I miss work, and I'm sleep deprived. I'm frantically checking my work emails even though nothing's requiring my attention. Travelling alone does dampen the mood a bit. It would be nice if I have more time to leave the airport and explore.

The timing of my vacation is also a bit ill-timed. I've only been working full time since September and I haven't been as busy as I thought i would be. So the need to have a vacation is diminished. I think my family would like to see me for Chinese New Year, though.

Maybe it is a good mental break to have a 2 week time out away from work. I've been dealing with some interpersonal issues in my professional life - just trying to learn to accept my new role as a service provider, as someone's advisor, and as colleagues, and as an employee of in a partnership. Someone more senior once told me that the second year of your practice is the worst year after the novelty of being a lawyer wears off. I'm not sure what to make of that comment at this stage. When I was still an outsider, I used to think that being a lawyer would be stressful because of the long hours and the reading. Now that I am practicing, I think the stress comes from trying to figure out what role I am playing in the bigger scheme of things - in the partnership, in the business, in the public interest.

Rather than writing these feelings off or acting impulsively, I will acknowledge them and try to understand their underlying reasons. I read this somewhere http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059823679423598.html

And I am out.