I love being back at the office, surrounded by students. Although they are happy to be back, and had a great holiday away, many of them are now heading back to school to begin again the life of being a law student. This usually means funds are limited. Many of them are coming back to serious holiday student-debt hangovers which might be as much as 7 years old. And while many of them are studying "Remedies" in class, few are able to implement one for their finances. They are longingly looking forward to articling salaries as a solution. With my newfound internal "raise" (I calculate the grocery budget's been slashed by approximately $100 per week, or $5200 per year)I feel I have some insight to share.
Being a busy professional doesn't lessen the pressure. Starting out with their first legal job takes even more energy than they devote to law school. They have even LESS time to prepare meals, to recharge their physical selves, and to shop, prepare and eat healthy food.
It still doesn't stop once they get established because they're now looking to grow their practice and often are making major life-decisions (spouses, new families, new homes, etc..) in the process. To say that the life of a twenty something-turning-thirty lawyer is "busy" is quite simply an understatement.
This semester, I would love to chair some kind of food group for the students where we could at least share some tips for keeping the food healthy, real and cheap. They are often a FONT of knowledge for what is cheap, but from my conversations with many, "healthy" is hard to rate.
Even with my new vegan outlook, I don't remotely think that all of them should suddenly give up animal food. Rather, by increasing grains, veggies and legumes, they could just stretch their budgets a bit, trim their waistlines a bit, maintain their energy just a bit more?
I love the students I work with, and saw a great quote recently. "If you live like a lawyer when you are a law student, you'll be living like a law student when you're a lawyer"
Food for thought.
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