Welp, that was stressful


** It's the morning after the election
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** What do we do now?
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Let me tell you a story. In 2010 I graduated from law school (GO BLUE!) and studied harder than I had ever studied in my life, which is saying something, for the New York bar exam. I spent ten weeks taking hours and hours of classes, making thousands of flash cards, searching for old bar exam books in used book stores, borrowing them from my friends and making copies, writing hundreds of practice essays and filling in thousands and thousands of tiny practice bubbles. I studied so hard that I dreamt that Barack Obama was giving me the exam, shouting questions about legal ethics and illegal searches while I ran on a treadmill. I worked as hard as I possibly could have. And then I took the bar. I sat in a big stadium with hundreds of other nerds and bled into my computer as I tried desperately to remember everything I had studied up until that point. I even ran to my car during breaks to study in the car. Yeah, I really did that. Finally, I finished my exam and closed my laptop. I was done.

And then, I had to wait.

And I mean, WAIT. New York takes an absurdly long time to send bar exam results. I'm sure there is a good reason for this but not one that any recent law graduate whose life is on the line can understand. I spent months sitting in a house in Washington D.C. waiting and waiting and waiting to find out if all of that work and those hours and those years and all of that money and struggle had been worth it. Was I going to be a lawyer? Nobody knew.

Finally, after months (LITERALLY MONTHS) of agony, I found out. I passed. I was a barred attorney and that is something that no one can ever take away from me. It remains one of the proudest moments of my life, and also one of the biggest lessons I have ever learned: You can work as hard as you can for as long as you can but at some point you have to let go. It is no longer up to you.

I'm sure you see where I'm going with this. We have worked so hard. Boy, have we. We have worked to make sure that every American could vote, that as many people as possible could get IDs, that as many of the most vulnerable, most ignored, most targeted people in America could exercise their power at the polls. Many of us also worked for local candidates we love, statewide candidates we believe in, maybe even a Presidential candidate. And then, yesterday arrived. We voted.

And now we wait.

We're waiting for election results up and down the ballot, although there might be one particular election stressing us out more than others...

But there is nothing we can do now but wait for the count. Believe me, I know this pain. Waiting is not a thing I'm great at. But what to do?

Keep Calm and Wait For The Count.

This is when we believe in the system. This is when we know that local boards of elections and secretaries of states are working hard to count every vote. They know the eyes of the world are on them. They know there are cameras in the rooms. They have millions more absentee ballots than ever before and they know that everyone on Planet Earth is waiting with baited breath and bare knuckles for the count. And it's up to them, not us.

So what to do? Well, if you're me, you wake up at sunrise and start making spreadsheets and building out your 2021 strategy. I really hope you're not me.

If you're not soothed by cells and numbers, now is the time to chill in your own way. You deserve it. You worked hard. OR, maybe don't chill and be productive. Again, this is for the mess out there. Maybe you've been dying to reorganize your closet or really want to knit beanies for babies. Yes, this is a thing and it's ADORABLE.

You could watch 24 hour news and doom scroll until you develop an ulcer. Or you could learn to play the ukulele or be a driver for shelter pets (THIS IS ALSO A THING) or watch every single episode of Girlfriends on Netflix.

This is when it gets rough. But right now is the time to keep calm and wait for the count. Let's take this one day at a time.

If you need me, I'll be making spreadsheets.
Kat

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