II

• Author: Lindsay Cameron
• Profession: Corporate attorney
• Pages: 21-29

21

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T  ,  fondness for crossword puzzles wasn’t the

reason I chose the corporate department. In Biglaw, the corporate

department was a mark of success and I’d been xated with success

ever since I saw my sister, Margaret, draped in four rst place med-

als at the regional swim competition when I was ten years old. Mom

had signed Margaret and me up for the swim team at the community

center that summer aer reading an article on the importance of

sports in building girls’ self-esteem. Margaret had groaned, but I was

excited—I loved swimming. When the season started, it didn’t take a

stopwatch to tell me that Margaret was easily the fastest swimmer on

the team, oen nishing races a full length ahead of everyone else.

And I would know, being that I was usually the one bringing up the

rear. “I think you just need to practice more,” Mom would gently

instruct when I complained to her about being last. “You can achieve

anything with hard work.” So I spent the summer in the pool, with

Dad dropping me o early on his way to work while Margaret was

still in bed, and stayed long past when Margaret skipped out to

head to the beach with her friends. I didn’t mind, though, because I

couldn’t wait to show my parents how good I’d become in the nal

match of the summer—the All East swim competition. But things

didn’t go exactly as my optimistic ten-year old mind had planned.

Margaret won four rst place medals, and all I walked away with was

a cruddy participation ribbon. Watching my sister standing on the

makeshi podium, the medals draped around her neck, nodding

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