Law School will wreck your self-esteem and self worth. Studying for the bar exam will be much worse for your psyche, but only if you do it right (make sure you sign up for a reputable commercial bar course that costs a couple grand and gives you a study schedule for 2-3 months before taking your state's exam). During bar review, you will certainly feel you have crossed the line from neurotic to psychotic.

But you are tenacious & hard working and will pass the exam, don't worry.

Your tenacity will help you get the law job you need to repay your sizable student loans.

Then you will really feel trapped and helpless. Because your first job as a rookie lawyer is sure to make you feel awful and incompetent.

But give it 3-5 years and you will start to hit your professional stride. It is a long process, but one day you will hsve the professional satisfaction you are seeking.

You're not alone in your feelings.

Hang in there, and remember your tenacity.

Once the LW has kids, she is going to have moments where she is going to bite her tounge to keep herself from identifying herself as a "mom" before listing her other important identifying attributes.

I am a working mother, that is usually how I identify myself. My husband will forgive me for not adding wife to that description.

I used to have lots of hobbies but now all I have time for is my career, which I need to repay my student loans, and motherhood, which is rewarding and scary and awesome-- but on a day-to-day basis currently involves a lot of bodily fluids-- both my own and my children's.

Right now I am enjoying maternity leave, sitting in my pjs after an only moderately-sleepness night of breasfeeding my son. I am stealing moments reading SYA, watching the newborn sleep in the swing and watching my 21 month old daughter in fleece feet pajamas play with her little peoples garage-- no wait, I am actually waiting for her to finish grunting her way through a stinky BM that she declined to sit on the potty for and then I am going to wrap up this comment and go change her diaper.

When I am on maternity leave, I certainly can forget that other part of my life exists at the office. But I will be back in my suit and pumps soon enough, envying the nanny. One day I am going to get back to my hobbies, too.

Nothing is ever permanent.