Withdrew in January 2022. The loan payments would begin in 6 months. I had no plan beyond "not mo…
T=0: The Decision
$85,000 in law school debt growing at 6.5% interest. Second year of a JD at a T-30 school. I had enrolled because I had a politics degree and could not think of what else a politics degree was for. By November 2021 I was in therapy admitting that I did not want to be a lawyer and could not identify a single specific reason why I had enrolled beyond the absence of alternatives.
Withdrew in January 2022. The loan payments would begin in 6 months. I had no plan beyond "not more debt for a career I don't want."
A career path that I can describe with conviction rather than by elimination.
6 Months Out
Loan repayment started. $620/month. My law school classmates are starting BigLaw associate roles at $215k. I have a paralegal job at $42k. The sunk cost logic is louder than I expected — "you were this close" is a genuinely difficult voice to argue with.
“Do not calculate the opportunity cost in real time. It is not a useful number. The only relevant question is: what does the next year look like from here, and is that better or worse than the alternative.”