I Pull An Elle Woods

Last night was fun. It was my Dad's 50th birthday party, and I got to have lots of interesting conversations. Some people were familiar, some not so much. People would come up to me and say "Oh my God! Is that Sondra? I remember when you were a little baby! You're so grown up now!"

I got to see John, who I hadn't seen in ages and got to hear all about Morocco. I lended him "Carnet De Voyage", and was thrilled to find that he recognized alot of the drawings in it.

I also had a really interesting conversation with Laura, my cousin Allan's fiancee. I'm not exactly sure what that would make her... cousin, right? Anyways...

She asked me about college and what I wanted to do. I really don't have much of a clue right now, so I just shrugged my shoulders and said that I was planning on taking a few liberal arts classes and see where it leads. I love humanities and philosphy, but that stuff isn't very practical or easy to find a job in. I was kinda leaning towards maybe something in Psychology, but it's just really a whim right now. I said that one time I took one of those 'career path' computer programs in high school, and was shocked to find out that my result was 'drug addictions councilor'. My friends were amused, but some also agreed that they find me easy to talk to. Regardless, I want to end up helping people.

"Have you ever thought about being a lawyer?" she asked.

"What?! Me? A lawyer? HaHA! No way! No! I mean, I could never do that, I'd go on this huge guilt trip every time I had to put someone in prison or worse, to death. No way. I don't even eat meat, how could I ever make something like that my job?!"

"Well, there are alot of other things you could do with a law degree. You could go into Family Law. You could help alot of people there. Maybe Immigration Law? Think about how much you could help people navigate the system there. And it's really not as impossible as so many people think. Sure it's hard, but so is everything else. And people will always need lawyers. I have a friend who is a lawyer, and it's certainly not hard to be able to find work."

"I don't know. I've never thought of myself as a future lawyer. I'm not competetive at all, I'm not really hard nosed or anything, or malicious, or especially driven by money."

"But think about it, you could change all of those sterotypes and help so much people. Doctors are the same way. I hated alot of the pre-med people I went to school with. They were snobby book types. So many doctors are not the type of doctors you want to be dealing with. If I spend 10 minutes with people in the E.R., trying to help them out and find their way, they're so surprised and grateful. It's the only way you can change how doctors are, to act like how a doctor should act."

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So now I'm playing with the idea. I'm not saying I'll be enrolling in a Pre-law school now, but it's something to consider. I've always sort of felt that I could do well at alot of things, it was just a matter of finding something. Law is definitely something. It applys to most issues I'm passionate about, and I could help so many people. I'll keep in the back of my mind for a year, and see how I feel about it then. Not something to be really flakey about.

I wouldn't be too thrilled at the idea of working in a traditional office all of the time, but perhaps it would also be quite possible to work for enviromental or feminist groups which would provide a much more modern/laid back atmosphere.

Ah, the inner hippie comes out. I could write poems after my victory of saving wetlands.

Ahem. "Nobody sits like this rock sits. You rock, rock. The rock just sits and is. You show us how to just sit here and that's what we need." (if you don't know where thats from, go rent i heart huckabees NOW!)

The thing that surprised me the most was when I brought it up to my Dad later that night. He actually took it as something plausible. He almost never does that. Never. Normally he'll say something like- "Well, you'd need better grades for that" or just kind of smile in a way that I find infinitely annoying, as if to say 'how cute, you say you want to be an astronaut?'

I just thought it was that he had a bit too much wine (which is still possible), but when I brought it up to my Mom at breakfast, she seemed to agree with it too. Given, that's like the greatest thing you could tell your parents.

"Mom, Dad, I want to go pre-law." It goes over much easier than "Mom, Dad, I want to be a conceptual artist." Unless, of course, your parents are conceptual artists themselves.

Joseph Bueys probably wouldn't be thrilled by the idea of a child of his decided to go off to law school. "What do you mean, pre-law?! Why can't you just be normal and display upside down urinals at art galleries?!"

But it was nice to catch their attention. I just need to give this some time and think about it.

"Hey, you could even go into Medical Law! Help doctors out when their sewed for mal-practice? Huh? What do you think?"

Now I see where her true intentions lie. Sneaky, that Laura.

Until Later,

Sondra