Meet Milica Radoja | Legal Assistant & Weeknight Happiness Advocate

We had the good fortune of connecting with Milica Radoja and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Milica, we’d love to hear what makes you happy.
Getting things done..and also relaxing. I moved back to America after living in Serbia for 2 years and immediately started working as a legal assistant at a law firm. The drastic change from working unpredictable hours as a cashier in a developing country, to commuting 30 miles to my 8-5 in Baltimore City, was harder to navigate than I had expected. I went to visit my family in Serbia during Covid, and ended up getting a job and staying. It was often hard to find happiness when I felt like the odd one out. I knew the language well, but the way of life was a culture shock at times. I had made friends at work and eventually tasted happiness in sips of coffee, heard it in our laughs behind the cash register, and felt it reverberate in the walls of our 6 person household. Happiness there felt intimate, but in America it seemed harder to find.
I was so eager to start working at a job within my field of study (my diploma was not accepted as valid in Serbia). I nailed the interview the morning after my flight back to America and started the job a few days later. Battling jet lag as a legal assistant was only the first barricade to my happiness. The excitement of my dream job quickly faded after I realized how much less time I had here.. especially for coffee with friends. My first few weeks of work, I would meet up with my best friend, Tyrie, during the week and watch the daily Love Island episodes, but I soon fell behind. I became very unhappy with the 8-5 routine and I realized that I needed to re-define my happiness throughout the week. I once read that many people on their deathbeds regretted spending their whole weeks looking forward to Friday’s. As morbid as that is, I used it as motivation to treat every weeknight like a Friday (to a healthy extent). I began to center my happiness around seeing friends throughout the week, saying yes more, and eventually starting to study for the LSAT after work. I noticed that I was dreading weekdays and putting off any form of happiness (or productivity) until the weekend.
It became obvious that Monday’s did not need to have a negative connotation. For some time, it felt like I had a pot of joy I was saving for the weekends, and then I started to sprinkle it throughout the week. The biggest changes I made came in the form of feeling grateful for the work week, and giving myself things to look forward to every day. My notes app became my second-hand man. I would plan new recipes to try, weekly shows to watch, and arts and crafts to do. I was finally caught up with Love Island. These tiny forms of happiness felt huge. I found myself actually able to relax on weeknights.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am so excited to take my LSAT test and apply for law schools soon! I really was so fortunate to be hired as a legal assistant at a firm where we have our own clients and work on their files individually, from start to finish. I interned at a government pro-bono law firm in college and although the skills I learned there were impressive, I have been exposed to a whole different level of responsibility within this job. It was extremely hard being the first Towson University class to graduate during Covid. The shift to online classes and even the online LSAT caused a decline in my performance. Between graduating in 2020, to starting to study again in 2024, the gap in education felt like starting school all over again.
The hardest part was not the material itself, but the discipline needed to study. Being away from home for 11 hours of the day made this even harder throughout the work week. I overcame these challenges by surrounding myself with hard-working people, both at work and personally. I used other people’s motivation and successes to make goals for myself while also finding time to relax in between. I’m still learning how to be both a hard worker and relax. I think that finding your own personal balance of the 2 is what makes someone productive but also happy.
I want the world to know that it is possible to have both your dream career and your personal happiness, even though a lot of times I feel like I have to sacrifice one for the other.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If someone were to visit Maryland, I would recommend a combination of indoor and outdoor activities. Some local things I have enjoyed from living here have been Comet Ping Pong, where you can get pizza, drinks, and have some competition flowing (same with Swingers Dupont Circle), and pretty much any sports game. Maryland’s proximity to Washington D.C. and the Eastern Shore makes it the perfect place for anyone to find activities that interest them. The Eastern Shore would be the perfect weekend trip: it’s filled with local consignment stores, where a few dollars get you far, and a tiki restaurant on the water that is accessible by boat. These gems are hidden all throughout Maryland.
A more popular attraction that I enjoy every year is Artechouse: a digital art instillation in D.C.
For breakfast, the most unique spot I’ve found is Laurel Tavern Donuts where they sell mini burgers for breakfast.
For lunch, I’d recommend a local deli such as Santucci’s in Silver Spring.
For dinner I will always recommend Hawkers in Bethesda, MD, I’ve celebrated my birthday there for the past 3 years.
A sight that I feel like anyone visiting Maryland would HAVE to see is a sunset over genuinely ANY body of water in our state, the sunsets here feel different.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to dedicate my shoutout to my family both here and in Serbia, my friends across the world, my very patient boyfriend, and the internet for the expansive suggestions for weeknight fun. I think my employer also deserves recognition for instilling a routine that I carry into my personal productiveness. My LSAT tutor deserves special recognition for understanding the breaks I needed in studying at times.

Instagram: mihlika

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/milica-radoja-510832355/

Image Credits
These are my personal images