To Olivia re: your question from a few days ago - for me the happiness is both the money, as well as the prestige that I believe comes from working at an elite law firm. For some reason, I feel as though if I don't pay my dues by going through that system, I will be seen as having wasted my money and my time (and I might end up feeling the same). Additionally, there is a ever-present background fear that as a minority, taking a non-traditional (read: non-obviously-lucrative/prestigious) path after leaving CLS will cause people to perceive me as a "charity case" that didn't deserve to be at CLS in the first place.

I experienced similar fears after graduating from here for undergrad. For many minorities, if you graduate from Columbia (or some other expensive school) and aren't doing something lucrative/prestigious right after graduation, the general sentiment (at least from family) is that all that money was a waste and that you might as well have become a garbageman or something like that (no disrespect to garbagemen either - it's a great job, and they are PAID with a capital P.)

-- NnamdiNwaezeapu - 05 Feb 2021