“When do I get to be who I’m going to be?”

It’s a question that still perplexes Julie Buxbaum, nearly a decade after graduating from Penn.It’s a key dilemma for Emily Haxby, the central character of Julie’s debut novel, The Opposite of Love.

And I’d bet it’s a problem a lot of Penn students wrestle with, too.

You wouldn’t expect it from Julie, who’s already been a Harvard law student, corporate lawyer, and (at present) successful novelist. Shouldn’t she know by now?

Well… talk to her for a few minutes, and you’ll understand. Julie wishes she’d gone into public interest law; having majored in PPE over English, she’s got a stack of classics left to read; and so on. Like a lot of us, Julie’s still figuring it out.

A self-confessed Type A personality — tethered to her cell phone as we talk across three time zones — Julie’s touring to support The Opposite of Love (she’ll be at the Penn bookstore at 7:00 tonight, signing the book and taking questions). While the novel’s great, Julie’s own story is just as intriguing.

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