Being Unemployed Is Like...Crossing Lake Pontchartrain

Eight months into the search for public interest legal employment is beginning to feel like crossing the world's second longest bridge over water: Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana. Let me explain:

My mom's side of the family is from the South (Texas by way of Louisiana). We would go to visit them in Houston/Sugarland/Humble/Missouri City via car or train.  This explains my unabashed love for a city many find...unpleasant.  Now, our itinerary would invariably involved a trip through NOLA, one of our absolute favorite cities where my mom could go to Dooky Chase's and I could get an Oyster Po' boy. 

For the record, the BEST oyster po boy I have ever had (fresh, perfectly crusty French bread, creamy homemade mayo, crispy, sweet and salty oysters, ripe tomatoes) was at a Comfort Inn in New Orleans. No lie.  I think this was a different hotel than the one where I reached into the nightstand to check out the bible and pulled out an engraved handgun. "Mom, does this come with the room?"I asked.  Apparently not since the manager and security guard came to relieve us of said firearm after my mom told them of my discovery.

But I digress.  This is Lake Pontchartrain:

 

Source: http://googlesightseeing.com

                                                   Source: http://www.25facts.com/25-longest-bridges-in-the-world/

The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, which cuts across the lake, is a little over 23 miles long.  When you are in a car (or worse, on a train because then - while shorter - it is just a single track... no tunnel, no railing, just a single track) at a certain point, all that you see is water.  Water all around you with no end in sight. I was always petrified to cross this lake when I was little because of the vastness of the water.  It was unsettling, undefined, unsafe.

That, my friends, is what my life feel like right now.  Like I am stranded at mile 11 and there is absolutely nothing around me.  No way to move forward (interviews for jobs I am highly qualified for? Ha! I...wish...) and no way to move back (switch that LLM for a clerkship or a entry level public interest job? Impossible.  I am no Marty McFly though I occasionally wear Calvins).  Nothing I can do to make the car go.  At this point, I am beginning to think putting forth no effort at all would be about as fruitful as networking and applying for jobs because I am stuck.