Thank you letters.

I know they're a formality. I know it's the gesture. I know that I should be thanking people for giving up $150 dollars for the firm, for half an hour of interviewing me...

It's just that I hate writing thank you letters, and I wonder if the people who receive them also hate having to read them as much as I hate writing them... if they even read them at all.

My beef with them is that there's no room for creativity, but I also don't want to send everyone the same thank you letter. I would like to personalize them, but I don't think that's really appropriate, short of saying, "I really enjoyed speaking with you about pro bono activities," or, "I really enjoyed speaking with you about your experiences." Thank you letters are much more fun when they're informal, but you can't BE informal in a thank you letter...

I mean it was okay, talking to you about stuff, but I don't think either of us walked away from the interview being like, "DUDE, THAT WAS SO AWESOME!" Best case scenario, we walk away going, "Well, that was a very interesting conversation, with someone I would like to work with someday." Worst case, I walk away going, "What an awkward dick," and you walk away going, "What a dumbass." Luckily, at Firm #1 last Thursday, I did not have that reaction to anyone...and I hope they didn't either.

Ugh. And then there's the stamps, and the envelopes, and all that other "mailing accoutrements." Why?! WHYYY? Why can't we just email thank you letters?! Why can't that just happen? Ugh.

Oh well. I have quite a few to crank out. This is going to take a while. I'm also really suspicious that people are going to all gather around a table and compare thank you notes, to make sure I'm not just repeating thank you notes... changing the names and one sentence... but using exactly the same letter otherwise.

The jobs that I just interviewed for (one of them anyway...) I really want. I really liked the people, and I really really liked the work. I don't want to screw it up, so I can't just write one letter. But ugh. I might fail the bar because I have to come up with creative ways to thank 14 stellar people.

I'll do it after dinner. We all know I'm not going to study any more today...