Power
Oh, you want power now, do you? Should have thought about that before you took the easy way out. Paralegals are no slouches, but you'll have to look elsewhere for your power trip. You pretty much get ordered around and sent on bagel runs on a daily basis. And it's tough on the ego—over time, you'll know a ton more than the brand new lawyers getting recruited for salaries two to four times yours.
But they studied on Saturday nights while you dated, and they went to the snooty Ivy League colleges while you didn't. There'll be flashes of regret that you didn't take the extra hour each night in high school to actually study instead of nail the triple flip in cheerleader practice, and you'll always wonder what you could have been. But if you can deal with that ego stuff, you can influence a ton of activity inside your firm.