Breaking Out of Pre-Law | jdOasis.com

I came to college set on becoming a lawyer; it was all I wanted. From memorizing court cases and legal terms to practically making best friends with every single one of my professors, every night I went to sleep saying to myself "this is what I want to do." I dreamed of being an older man in a black suit and tie with a view of Central Park, a case brief waiting for me to go over on a mahogany desk.

That was four years ago. Now just several months short of graduating, my focus has changed almost entirely. I went to Rome to study abroad, where I came realize how anarchy was actually functional, even if most of the people my age living there were either unemployed or dropping out of school. I will say though, you haven't experienced comedy until you watch a seven foot tall man run along the Tiber River with a large leg of ham slung over his shoulder while being chased by a mob of disgruntled Roman police officers equipped with miniature batons.

While my time in Europe was incredibly enjoyable, I saw how their interpretation of the law was ineffective and could never work in the United States; our population was far too big, the history too different, the cultural exchange too great, the quality of life too complex. Now at this point my life-long goal felt like it was etched in stone. When I arrived back in JFK on an icy December day, I couldn't wait to get back to my American college and learn about American law.

However, fate had other plans for me. The classes I took were interesting, but the professors, embittered by years of repetition and laws they deemed wrong, I became disillusioned by what I was learning. Was this what I really wanted? But hey, at least I was in the United States, the pinnacle of all working law, Everythubg here is effective and functional, or so I thought. While changing a tire with a friend in southern Maryland, the local police stopped, and instead of asking us if we wanted help, falsely accused us of theft because, unknown to us until after the ordeal, suspects who looked like us, or "white men wearing dark colors" had broken into a car two blocks away. They violated our rights in every way; searching both us and the vehicle. They tried to incriminate us by asking complex questions (we said nothing the whole time), refused to tell us what we had supposedly done wrong, kept us there without any charge, and called several other cars full of their fellow officers to basically harass us. My friend and I were eventually let go; the police issued a very insincere apology and we went home. That was the day my love for the law truly died.

I did what I was taught; I was compliant and played by the rules. The courses I took on court cases, the judicial system, even how the police worked, all of which had preached that our system was flawed but functional, proved to me how dysfunctional it actually was. Why would I choose to become a part of a broken machine? I'm not a mechanic, but what I do know is if something is damaged, it can only run for so long before it runs itself into the ground and dies forever. Europe was flawed, but at least no one harassed me over there.

Days after this instance, I joined my college's business school. Within two months, you would have never guessed I had ever even started the pre-law track. Court cases turned into to business case studies, judicial hearings became spreadsheets and balance sheets, and police-work studying transitioned into how to get a business up and going.

I'm glad I made this transition, because it showed me what I truly loved. Imagine if I figured out that I couldn't stand the law AFTER going to law school and spending time as a paralegal! My legal professors actually said they didn't blame me, if you can believe that.

Fast forward a year. Here I am, applying to jobs with a variety of consulting and financial firms, all of which seem to like me thus far, or so I think. Whenever they ask me why I moved away from law, I tell them it's because I realized business suited me better. Truth be told, it does, but that doesn't mean I regret my time as someone who focused on pre-law while in undergrad. The "broken machine" analogy of mine relates to this point because, even if a machine is broken, to leave it there and not take the functioning parts is just a waste of resources. The analysis, the research, the writing skills, hell, even the argumentative aspects of a pre-law education have stuck with me.

That's my story. My only suggestion to those who are on the pre-law track is that if you are actually doing this, make sure it's in your best interests. If you love it and want to pursue a career in law then I wish you all the best, however if you are unsure, please reconsider.

Source: http://www.jdoasis.com/forums/breaking-out-pre-law

mike daisey nicollette sheridan apple dividend snow white and the huntsman snow white and the huntsman rupaul drag race walking dead comic