Honestly, I fear a general state of unhappiness. Being a practicing attorney is an intense lifestyle. As much as I am passionate about my career, I want to have time to spend at home with my family and taking care of myself.
Not being able to do enough in my lifetime to help move this society in a direction that is more inclusive, more understanding, and more willing to shed racist/xenophobic/homophobic/transphobic ideologies.
My biggest fear is being so focused on certain, future goals that I neglect present happiness. I'm trying to be more aware of how my programmed desire for productivity interferes with my ability relax and enjoy the present moment.
I'm afraid that I'll go through life never having done anything to counter my tremendous laziness, and that I'll just marinate in my own stagnation until I'm ultimately a failure and a disappointment.
I'm excited that we'll be talking about racism's impact on the law. However, I've experienced a lot of racism in Harvard Law School classrooms, and I am afraid that those experiences will be repeated and amplified on days that we are explicitly asked to talk about race.
My biggest fear right now is that I'll have a legal career that I don't like, where I'm not following my passion of advocating for equal justice for marginalized folks. And relatedly, that my job takes over my identity. I fear the eroding of boundaries between personal identity and work priorities/accomplishments.
My biggest fear is becoming complicit in the system as a beneficiary of many of the institutional inequalities that I am passionate about dismantling. I also fear burn-out and becoming more generally pessimistic about our ability to improve the world we live in for the most marginalized communities.
that I will end up working at a law firm / having to practice law and be miserable. Losing my parents who are older / them not seeing me finally reach stability and get rid of these oppressive loans, and finally pivot into a career where I'm happy.
I'm really not interested in legal courses that are not doctrinal. I generally like learning rules and not paying attention to critiques of the law, as I generally want to know the law first. I fear that I let this idea overtake me again this year in this class and others and I fail to pay attention to these important conversations since I will most likely not be exposed to these ideas in the practical workplace
That there's nothing I can do to change anything for the better, and/or that any attempts I make to "do good" are tainted by arrogance+a need to be seen as a "good person" and will only make things worse.
I find it difficult to isolate my biggest fear going forward because there are so many problems to take into account right now. I am scared of losing a family member or loved one to COVID-19 and of contracting it myself. I am scared for my cousins who are Black men and are always at risk of facing police violence, etc. Perhaps my biggest fear is finding out just how bad things can get in this country with totally inadequate leadership, as it encompasses many of the problems I worry about today.
I fear that unrest will lead to life of fear. Fear will result in lack of realizing dreams. Lack of realizing dreams will hamper peoples' enjoyment and the American dream will be lost.
My biggest concern going forward is accurately identifying the path to take in my career that will be the right fit for me and that will allow for me to engage in work that I find meaningful and engaging long-term
Discovering conclusively that nothing matters and that I wasted the time in which I could have been blissfully ignorant rather than searching for meaning.
I am by no means a tough guy. I try to be sometimes but my 5'8 frame and lack of any discernable toughness does not really allow me to be. That being said, I'm not really afraid of anything generally. Shit happens in life, so I'll take it one day at a time. I guess what I'm most afraid of right now is Coronavirus - not for myself though. Everyone in family is at risk - so just trying o be aware of things i can do to mitigate damages.
I am afraid of failure. Not just academic failure – far from it. The constant guilt of feeling like I am not doing enough to support my loved ones, the push-pull between putting myself first out of necessity but also fearful that taking care of myself is selfish. I am fearful of the loss of loved ones. I am fearful of being in academic spaces virtually, occupied by pedagogy, while Black people are dying and a pandemic is ravaging through the nation. I am fearful about mental health in digital/physical materiality, about preserving myself in order to not lose myself. I am fearful that creative visions for the future will be blocked by reactionary impulses of the present.
I fear that I won’t find happiness and fulfillment in life. This means working towards goals that I don’t believe are laudable, either personally or in terms of their effect on others. It means not having the time to enjoy those “passions” that matter most to me. And it means losing the curiosity and interest in a wider world that has so long sustained me.
Being at the end of my life and feeling that I either did not live authentically or that I did not take full advantage of this absurd and beautiful opportunity.