I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is a little happier.

I often feel like I don't know the right thing to say.

I'll be searching for the right words to help someone else feel comforted, strengthened, or understood,

and I'm at a loss.

So I always pay special attention when someone knows just the right thing to say.

I vividly remember one such conversation. Many years ago I was a

a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

This was a rare, amazing once in a lifetime work experience.

There are many reasons that I don't regret law school

and my years as a lawyer before becoming a writer and the chance to work for

Justice O'Connor is one of them. Very sadly the justice recently died and as I reflected on her life

and on our time together I remembered something that happened when I was

applying for my clerkship with her. I was a third-year law student, I'd applied for the clerkship and I was thrilled

because the justice invited me to come to Washington, D.C. to meet her in her chambers for an interview.

I traveled from New Haven to DC

and it was the day of the interview.

And as you might imagine imagine I was nervous.

Fortunately, I happened to have a good friend from college who was clerking for Chief Justice

Renquist at the time, so we met for lunch before my interview.

He explained to me what a clerkship required and he told me how his

year had been going and at the end of the conversation I confided to him the

thing is Jim did you ever worry about whether you're good enough for the job?

...