When I was a little child, I do not remember me ever thinking about a career in the future like any other kid that said that they wanted to become like singers, doctors, or teachers. To be honest I was more worried about regular kid stuff, school, and I was just living in the moment enjoying my life as a child. Then after I turned 10 the idea became more serious in my mind as I had decided that I had wanted to become president of the United States. My mind was set on that until I realized I had never fit one of the requirements which was to have been born in the United States. I started thinking about my career more as more and more people asked me that simple question of “What do you want to be when you grow up? “. I settled on being an FBI agent as I have always liked those crime drama shows. Then it changed to bomb squad and homeland security officer as those seemed cooler.
It was not until about 11th grade that I had settled on something because college was coming up and I wanted to be sure about what I wanted to do. I had gotten some new books, so I was just on a reading marathon when I just got to my next book which was “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson which was a personal narrative. His book was about navigating his life as a lawyer who was a part of the SPDC (Southern Prisoners Defense Committee) where he went to Alabama to help death row prisoners. The book circulates around this one prisoner by the name of Walter McMillian and Mr. Stevenson’s efforts to understand his case while trying to get him off death row. I do not want to go too much into the book because I would not want to spoil it. Anyways, he had also stared a non-profit organization called the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) where they are committed to ending mass incarceration as well as providing legal representation to those who are unfairly sentenced. Subsequently, they challenge the death penalty and are all about criminal justice reform. After reading the book and finding out all that information I was inspired by Mr. Stevenson. I decided this was something that I could see myself doing.
So, I started exploring different careers and thought about the people that I would want to help the most. I thought and decided that I would want to help minorities especially African Americans or those who are immigrants. I do not want to just do one thing as I like to explore my options so to go even further, I decided to set my sights on becoming a judge and this would be my ultimate career goal as in order to become a judge it is recommended that there is prior law experience. The major that I had chosen with the help of my 12th grade English teacher was perfect for someone who wanted to go to law school after college, so I was set with a small plan. When I started college, I had a career advisement with one of the advisers and she was questioning me about what I wanted to do and if I knew about what the daily tasks looked like for a lawyer. I informed her that I was not sure, so she provided a site where I could look more into depth about being a lawyer. I was comfortable with the job function and the skills needed in order to do this occupation. Months later I met with the pre-law advisor at my school who advised me of what I should be doing now and how to prepare for law school while still in college.
Thus, right now I am just trying to achieve the best possible grades while learning about new subjects. As well, as trying to single out where exactly I want to go for law school and what type of lawyer that I’d like to be. Moreover, I have been looking for internships to gain experience and increase my skills or gain new skills. I know for a fact this will be a difficult process to get to my goal, but I am determined the put in all the necessary work just to help others.
Links/ Sources:
https://eji.org/bryan-stevenson/
https://www.onetonline.org/ – for all occupation information