Dear Negative Nancys out there,

I am a Political Science major at a wonderful university and I have aspirations of attending law school after undergrad. This to many people is a great thing; people think it is wonderful that I want to become an attorney who will defend innocent people, help people with any legal issue and always work to do what is best for not only my client but society. Many people also think it is wonderful that I truly want to either do criminal law or corporate law, both being great fields where I will always be able to have steady employment. But, there are people out there who either think I am not serious or not smart enough to do this, or people who think it is a bad idea because who knows if you will be able to get a job upon graduating, or my favorite kind of people who think that everyone in the world should go into the medical field because of the "job security." Now I finally have something to say to people in either category that I just mentioned.

First of all, to the people who think that either I am not serious or I am not smart enough to go through four years of undergrad, three years of law school and pass the bar you have another thing coming. I will do all of this and I am very serious about it; one of the reasons I am so sure all of this will happen for me is because of you people. I will literally do all of that just to prove you wrong and show you what I am capable of doing for myself. I know that I am smart enough and I will become very successful in this career path. I know that helping people in this way, whether it be individual people or corporations, is something that I want to do. I have always wanted to help people and this will be my way of helping the world around me. So yes, I will do this because I am smart and very serious about adding that J.D. to my name in about six years.

Secondly, there are the people who try to give me statistics about how the job outlook for attorneys will be at an all-time low in 2020 or whatever year they want to throw out there at me. Well, the funny thing to me is these people can never give me the website or article where they obtained this information and from my research it looks like my job outlook is pretty great with either type of law that I am considering. Another way I know I will have a job is because people will always commit crimes, accuse someone of committing crimes or anything of the like. Also, there will be paperwork that a lawyer needs to complete for people for all types of things. I really don't see any of those things diminishing in the next few years. So yes, to all of the doubters of me having a job, I will get one.

Lastly, to my favorite people who only believe young people should get jobs in the healthcare field. Yes, for a while after graduating high school I thought there was nothing better in this world than wanting to become a doctor. I seriously wanted to major in biology, go to med school, then go on and become a pediatric surgeon. I know this sounds absolutely amazing to most because it sure did to me. One of the reasons I had thought this all up is because for my whole life my parents have worked in the medical field and I have had some awesome opportunities by being around some of the best nurses and doctors ever. Due to these experiences I thought that this is what had to be for me, to go and become a doctor that my parents would be so proud of, but after halfway through one semester as a bio major I quickly learned that even though I did pretty well in biology and chemistry courses in high school this was not where I was meant to be at all. I don't think anyone wants a doctor who struggles and hates learning about basic biology and chemistry. I also learned there are other ways out there to help people, than going into the medical field and doing it by actually treating health issues. So, people, do not always assume just because there will always be a need for doctors, nurses and the like it means that every kid graduating from high school needs to go that direction because then who would become your lawyers, military members, writers, scientists, journalists and many many other occupations?

In conclusion, please, people, do not be so quick to judge any student in college when they tell you their career path. Just because you do not know all of the information about that path doesn't mean you should try and direct them to what you think is best because that is not always what will work for that person. Allow us young adults to make our own decisions and go into areas of study that interest us.

Sincerely,

An aspiring lawyer

Oh, and P.S. just because I am a Political Science major does not mean I am going into politics one day, but at the same time you may never know where my path will lead me.