Okay, so this is probably stupid, but I just… needed to get it out somewhere, you know? Like, nobody knows this about me. Or they shouldn’t. It's not a big deal but sometimes you just gotta say the quiet part out loud, even if it's just to strangers on the internet at like, two in the morning. So I’m a lawyer, right? Corporate law. Big firms, big clients. Been doing it for, like, twenty-five years now. And yeah, it pays the bills, it pays for my kids' college, it pays for the assisted living my mom needs now, which, holy CRAP that's a whole other thing. Anyway. You get the picture. Established. Doing "well." But here's the thing. Sometimes you're sitting there, drafting some brief for some HUGE company that just… did something shady, you know? Like, really shady. And your entire job is to make sure they don't lose a penny, to poke holes in every argument against them. And you're good at it. REALLY good. And you get this bonus, you get the fancy office, the whole bit. And you know, deep down, that the whole system is just… rigged. Like, designed to protect the rich, specifically. To keep them rich. And you're a part of it. A cog. And you're making arguments you don't even believe, defending people you actively think are kinda awful. And you see the little guys, the ones who actually got screwed over, and their lawyers are just… outmatched, out-resourced. It’s not even a fair fight. And you're on the winning side, always, and it makes you feel kinda sick sometimes. And then you go home and your kid is asking for money for something dumb, or your dad calls confused again, and you’re like, "I spend twelve hours a day basically lying for money and THIS is my life?" And it’s not like I can just quit. What would I even do? I’m forty-something, almost fifty, too old to change careers, too invested. Too tired, honestly. And everyone at work, they’re all talking about their performance reviews, climbing the ladder, like it’s all so IMPORTANT. And I’m just like, I don’t even care, I just want to… I don’t know. Not feel like a hypocrite every damn day. It's just a lot, you know? Like, sometimes you just stare at your ceiling and think, "What have I even done with my life?" And then you fall asleep and do it all again. Ugh.