The Upside of Being Single

Grandma Bailey once told me that I wouldn’t be an important grandchild until I had babies.

I think she’s probably right – it’s basically impossible to beat pictures of Cora, Kacee, Brooke, Jonas, Rachelle, and Beckett being so darn adorable. But, as I’ve discovered this summer, there sure are a lot of upsides to being forever single.

For instance, I can…

1.Write the memo on stalking. Literally. (This summer, I worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, in the Sex Crimes & Domestic Violence Unit. I helped prosecute multiple misdemeanor and felony crimes in Superior Court. And yes – my legal research memo on D.C.’s new stalking laws helped win our case. Here’s me with Sandy, my new bestie, at the U.S. Supreme Court.)

2. Wear tank-tops (self-explanatory).

Taken with my iPhone (yup – that’s right Dad!)

3. Fly off to Thailand on a moment’s notice. (I spent a week in Thailand – half in Bangkok and half on the Phi Phi islands outside of Phuket. The most beautiful beaches and the most intensely decorated cities that I’ve ever seen.)

4. Take culturally-insensitive photos without fear of indoctrinating my kids with my jingoistic ethnocentrism. (I think that’s the monkey from the Ramayana; I’m not really sure.)

5. Seriously consider converting to Buddhism and living out my life celibate in a Himalayan monastery. (I hiked two hours to this monastery, called Tiger’s Nest, built on the side of a cliff in the country of Bhutan. I traveled as part of part of a Stanford legal team consulting on national arbitration and mediation programs.)

6. Alternatively – daydream about which Bhutanese man I’m going to marry so that I can share his citizenship. (This was taken on a festival day in Thimpu. Everyone from the surrounding villages came into town to see the dancers. Although they are wearing their finest ghos (men) and kiras (women) for festival day, everyone in Bhutan wears equally beautiful and colorful ghos and kiras every every day. Bhutan is a sea of color.)

6. See some of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life. (The Punakha Dzong, in Punakha, Bhutan.)

7. Start off on a new path! (I was recently offered a position as a law clerk in the chambers of Judge John Fisher of the D.C. Court of Appeals, and I accepted. I graduate from law school this June, I’ll take the bar shortly thereafter, and I will begin work in D.C. that September. It’s a perfect fit for me and I am so excited I can hardly even say how much! My first job as a lawyer! D.C. here I come.)